Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
by SonicAnime2010
Summary: Set just after the events of Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) and before Sonic 2. Almost having your home destroyed can really stress you out. A 9 year old Sonic knows that well, and has decided to take a vacation. Little does he know that his path is about to cross with a 9 year old Nanoha Takamachi, who is looking for her own place in life. Starts from the original series of Nanoha
1. Chapter 1

SonicANIME2010 here with the debut of my new story; now before I go into this, I'll clear a few things up... For one, this is another Sonic and Nanoha crossover, I just can't get enough of these two and I'm a big fan of both series. 2nd, this is another AU things, not related to the other crossovers by canon. As far as timeline is concerned, this is well in the Genesis days of Sonic, to put it in perspective, after Sonic 1, before Sonic 2, so Tails hasn't been introduced yet. As far as the Nanoha series, this is straight through the original, first season, so fair warning, there may be a bit more of a darkish theme. Without further ado, let it begin. Oh and I don't own any of the canon characters mentioned here, they belong to their respective companies

* * *

**[Uminari City]  
[7:30 am]  
[BGM: "The Promise" Final Fantasy XIII]**

"We are now entering our destination port of Uminari City; please make sure your belongings are secure" a tomboyish female voice spoke over the intercom, waking the 6 teenage human passengers; 4 female and 2 male, inside. The only non-human passenger was a young, anthropomorphic blue hedgehog. The blue of his fur covered his legs and head, but not his arms, belly or muzzle, those were all peach-furred. He was much shorter than the humans and looked a little bit chubby, but not overly so; clad in only a pair of white gloves, red shoes with a white stripe and golden buckle, and a small little red scarf along his collar. Though, despite his odd appearance, the other humans didn't really seem to mind. It did help that he didn't cause any trouble. In fact he tried to sleep the whole boat trip to Uminari, but the announcement put an end to that.

'_So much for Sonic the Hedgehog sleeping the whole way, now I have to face these humans,' _The 9-year old hedgehog, newly identified as Sonic, opened his green eyes and stood up from his seat, taking a moment to adjust his scarf a bit then carefully watching the six humans who were also in the cab of the ship he was on, _'I'd like to think that these guys aren't as bad as Eggman, but then again that's my naïve side thinking.'_

To the other humans, the hedgehog appeared to be nervous and awkward. Though most of them could understand such feelings; after all, if they were to put themselves in his shoes, they'd be probably feeling the same thing. The humans were then given a rather humorous display of the poor guy getting tripped to the ground due to the ship making a sudden stop into the harbor port.

'_Ugh! This is why I prefer the land.' _Sonic mentally groaned and slowly stood up, though his wobbly attempt in doing so and his struggle to maintain his balance caused the girls inside to giggle at the cute display. Sonic caught that and let out a chuckle himself to cover his embarrassment, "Uh… I meant to do that!"

There was a little bit of a pause after the hedgehog spoke, and that caused him to get nervous. Sonic thought in his mind that he made a big mistake in revealing that he could talk. He let out small and soft nervous whine, which cued the other humans, who were staring at him, in as to how young he was. To his surprise, the humans didn't say a word; instead, the girls giggled at him again while the two boys had looks of amusement on their faces.

"E-eh?" Sonic blinked, nervously staring at their reactions, but before he, or anyone else for that matter could say anything else; the captain's voice spoke over the intercom.

"Alright everyone, we've finished docking, you are all free to disembark" the captain declared, "Thank you for choosing the Syldra round trip touring service, your one and only ticket to see the beautiful South Island archipelago. I am Faris and I was proud to be your captain, I hope to see you all again soon."

The humans disembarked from the ship, giving their purple-haired captain a friendly wave on their way out. Sonic had attempted to slip out through the crowd too, but was easily caught by the ever-so-observant and experienced captain.

"Ah ah ah... not so fast there" the woman lightly tugged the hedgehog aside by the arm, "I want a word with you"

"E-eh? Why?" Sonic asked, futilely struggling to rush off, "I paid my fare didn't I?"

"In exact change" the captain added, "But that's not the issue..."

"You want to know why I left the island..." the hedgehog lowered his head, "Is that right?"

"Smart little guy too" Faris nodded, "You're the first of your kind to leave the islands to come here. I know that because I'm the only captain brave enough to take my boat over there. Everyone else has been trying to stay away since…"

"Eggman…" the blue hedgehog tightened his fists at the mere thought of the name, "He almost ruined my home, and I want to take a break from it all."

"Yeah, it's idiots like him that give us humans a bad name," Faris held her fist up, "You should know, not all humans are as bad as him."

"I hope you're right" the hedgehog didn't seem so confident.

"How about this, my next tour is set for a week from now" the captain offered, "That should give you plenty of time to take a vacation and observe the people of this city, and if you don't like it, I'll give you a free ride back. Got it?"

"Hai" Sonic nodded, "I'll do my best, thanks for your help."

"Don't mention it" the captain nudged the hedgehog off her boat, "Now get going, and don't come back until next week!"

"Yes ma'am!" the blue hedgehog nodded quickly and sped off to the top of the nearest building, _'She doesn't seem so bad, and maybe she's right. Not all humans are like Eggman. Well, I have a vacation, might as well get it going with a blast!'_

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Lyrical Familiar, is about to begin

* * *

**[Opening: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar  
Chapter 1  
it was a meeting of chance that changed it all**

* * *

**[Uminari City: Midori-ya café]  
[BGM: "The Yachas Massif" Final Fantasy XIII]**

To the 9-year-old Takamachi Nanoha, it was the start of any other day; wake up early, style her reddish brown hair in her usual twin-pigtails and get dressed in the long, white dress uniform that was the girls uniform for Seishou Elementary School; and go down and greet her family for breakfast.

"Ohayo, okaa-san, otoo-san," the girl greeted her mother and father as she entered the kitchen.

"Ohayo" Shiro, Nanoha's father returned the greeting with a warm grin

"Ohayo, Nanoha-chan" Momoko, her mother greeted Nanoha casually with a soft smile, "Breakfast is on the table."

"Arigatou" Nanoha said as she sat down at the table, "Itadakimasu"

"Did you do your homework?" her father asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"Hai" the young girl pulled out her backpack, "Everything's all done and ready to be turned in"

"You did it all, including your cram school?" Shirou asked in some disbelief, "That's a lot of work to do all at once."

"Nyahaha..." Nanoha giggled, "I sort of got tunnel vision when I started, so it was hard for me to take a break."

"You're a hardworking girl, just don't push yourself too hard" Momoko half-complimented/half-warned her daughter, "Oh, Kyouya and Miyuki took their breakfast to the dojo again to practice, in case you're wondering."

"Hai" Nanoha nodded, finished her breakfast and looked up at the clock, which read 7:35. In her surprise she quickly finished her breakfast and put her shoes on. Before she left she called back to her parents, "Ittekimasu (I'm going now, common Japanese greeting for the situation)"

"Itterasshai (translation "please go and come back" but again, common for situation)" Shiro called back, sighing as he watched his youngest daughter leave for school, "You're right about her being hardworking. It makes me worry that she could be working too hard. She ever tell you why?"

"Iie.. And neither her cram school teachers nor her elementary school teachers have been able to get an answer from her on that either." Momoko shook her head, "I don't know what drives her, but I just hope it doesn't get her hurt."

* * *

**[Seishou Elementary School]  
[BGM: "Plains of Eternity" Final Fantasy XIII-2]**

The bus to the coed elementary school came to a park just in time for the students on board to head into the building. Three students in particular included the average friendly Nanoha Takamachi and her two multimillionaire heiresses that were her best friends: the dirty-blonde, outspoken Anglophone Alisa Bannings; and the gentle and kind Suzuka Tsukimura. Though her friends would probably say and tell her otherwise, Nanoha often felt like a third wheel to them in comparison.

"Did you hear? Apparently after his base on South Island was destroyed, Doctor Eggman went off the radar. Like he disappeared and nobody's seen him since." Alisa asked the two, "Hard to believe that a formerly well-respected scientist in the field of robotics and technology could all of a sudden go crazy and start kidnapping innocent animals and do terrible things to them."

"It's been barely a week since we heard his "declaration" that he was going to conquer the world..." Suzuka added, "Something about powerful gems too..."

"What makes me curious is how his base was destroyed in the first place" Nanoha noted, "and it looked strong… Still I feel sorry for the ones who lived on South Island during that..."

"I just hope they aren't hurt. I've heard about how beautiful the islands are" Suzuka added, "Ever since I heard about them, I've been trying to convince my family to take one of the tours, but after hearing the bad news in the past week, I think they'll be more concerned for our safety."

Both Nanoha and Alisa nodded in agreement. The school bell cut their conversation short and the girls went into the classroom to start their school day.

* * *

**[Lunch-time]  
[No BGM]**

The first place Sonic visited in his little "tour" around the city took him to the elementary school, a place where young humans went to learn things about the world, not unlike the schooling on South Island. On a nearby rooftop, the blue hedgehog stood; making sure that he wouldn't be spotted and at the same time watching over the young humans as they enjoyed their lunch.

'_Well these ones don't seem too bad'_ Sonic mentally observed; suddenly he found his attention grabbed by a particular trio of human 9-year old girls who were about to enjoy their lunch on the same bench. Out of the three, the one who grabbed his attention the most with the girl with the brown-ish hair and blue eyes that had a slight purple tint to them, _'Huh? Who is this? Why do I suddenly feel this tug? Like I'm drawn to her…'_

"Erg... gotta get out of here before I reveal myself!" The blue hedgehog disappeared in a flash of blue that was his speed. In the back of his mind, the image of that 9 year old girl made an impression, but the reasons were still unknown.

Meanwhile, the middle of the school day finds Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka eating their bento lunches on the school's rooftop, a somewhat popular place to eat due to the peaceful atmosphere. One of the topics discussed in class was about the future and the jobs they wish to go into, which got Nanoha to ask the first question in their conversation.

"Alisa-chan, Suzuka-chan, you two already have decided what your futures are going to be" Nanoha asked the two curiously, "Ne?"

"Well my parents are company managers" Alisa answered, "So I'm working hard to succeed them when I grow up."

"And I have an interest in machines, so it'd probably be engineering for me." Suzuka added, "What about you, Nanoha-chan? Your family runs a café, so it'd be natural for you to take over it when you grow up."

"Hai... it seems that way, but...I feel like there's something else I want to do... I'm not sure I can see it clearly yet though." Nanoha nodded, and without her expression so much as showing it, she criticized herself, "I have no special skills or strong points about me either…"

**[BGM: "Miscasting" Nanoha A's OST]**

"BAKA!" Alisa's outburst caused Nanoha to turn her head to face her, only to close her left eye as the girl had thrown a slice of lime at her cheek. The dirty-blonde girl looked outright upset at what Nanoha had said, "You shouldn't be saying that about yourself!"

"That's right, I'm sure there's something only you can do" Suzuka's soft and encouraging tone voiced her agreement to what Alisa had said.

"Furthermore, aren't your grades better than mine?!" Alisa went further and pointed her finger at the girl in emphasis, making Nanoha inch her head slightly away. The outspoken girl looked like she was about ready to pounce on her friend, "And if you say that you have no strong points, what's that say about me, huh?!"

Sure enough, to the surprise of Suzuka, Alisa pounced on Nanoha and drove her to the ground. She then got behind the poor girl and stretched her face to rather comical levels. This display started to draw a bit of a crowd from the other students who chose to have their lunch on the rooftop garden area.

"But I wouldn't be good as a business administrator" Nanoha whined somehow through Alisa's humorous action, "And I wouldn't be good at normal work either…"

"E-eh, you two, you shouldn't be doing that, come on!" Suzuka tried, and failed to break the two up, "Come on, you guys!"

* * *

**[Later]  
[No BGM]**

Not fully able to take the image of the girl out of his mind, Sonic found himself following the trio of friends for the remainder of the day. He took care not to be spotted by them and somehow he was in the clear so far.

With only the peaceful sunset to serve as a backdrop, Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka walked along a path on their way to the cram school they attend sometimes after elementary school.

"Something I can do…" Nanoha thought about what Suzuka had said during lunch, "Something only I can do..."

Along their way, the trio passed a teenage girl taking her dog for a nice jog. The hedgehog had the dog pegged as one of the more annoying types, so it came to no surprise, and actually some amusement to see the energetic one become annoyed.

"BE QUIET!" the girl shouted at the dog in plain English. Satisfied that she shut the yappy beast up, she turned to rejoin her friends; however a soft chuckle from the bushes to her right caused her to curiously turn towards that direction, "Huh?"

'_Uhoh! Bailing!' _Sonic ducked his head and leapt to the trees, though he narrowly avoided detection, the light-blue trail his speed left drew some curiosity to Alisa Bannings.

'_Odd... thought I saw something just now…'_ Alisa thought to herself, only to quickly realize that her friends were up ahead. In her haste she rushed forward and past them, just in time to direct them to a shortcut off the beaten path that led to their cram school, "Over here! There's a shortcut."

The girls walked through the path, however, Nanoha looked a little bit pensive and she suddenly stopped when she realized something.

'_This place…'_ The young girl suddenly thought, reflecting back on a dream of a young human boy getting fighting off some weirdly shaped creature, _'This is just like… the one in my dream..'_

"Nanoha-chan, are you alright?" Suzuka asked in concern.

"H-huh? Oh I'm fine, don't worry" Nanoha tried to assure her friends.

'_That's not "fine" something's on her mind. First I see some weird blue flash thing, now Nanoha-chan's acting strangely' _Alisa noted in her thoughts, she didn't have much time to ponder them, as cram school was about to begin soon, "Come on you two, we don't want to be late!"

Suzuka and Nanoha followed her again. However, Nanoha still had the mysterious dream on her mind. Then, to add to Nanoha's sudden confusion, she felt something on her mind and heard a young voice. Unknown to her, the voice was also heard in Sonic's mind, much to his own confusion.

'_Help me' _a male voice, no older than ten years old if that, called out to them for help.

"E-eh?" Nanoha suddenly stopped, which in turn, caused Alisa and Suzuka to stop ahead of her, "Did you two hear that?"

"No…" Suzuka shook her head, she didn't hear anything

"Me neither..." Alisa added, though her thoughts had a different opinion, _'Could this day get any weirder? First I thought I saw something blue in the bushes earlier after I told off that dog, then Nanoha-chan starts acting weird, now she's hearing voices? What is going on?!'_

Nanoha stood for a moment, trying to figure out where the voice is coming from. Suddenly, she (and Sonic, though she didn't know that), heard the voice again, and this time she was able to pinpoint where it came from.

"This way!" Nanoha suddenly rushed in another direction, with no other choice, Alisa and Suzuka followed suit. Their blue hedgehog follower had also followed via leaping from tree to tree.

In a few minutes, Nanoha arrived at the source of the voice, which was revealed to be a sleeping yellowish-tan furred ferret. The hedgehog follower, still choosing discretion and subtlety, watched as the young girl knelt in front of the ferret in concern for its wellbeing.

The ferret, as if sensing a presence above him, raised his head upward and gazed at Nanoha, somewhat half awake. When he did, the red orb-like gem tied around his neck in a pendant caught the girl's attention. Sonic watched as the girl lifted the ferret up. Just as she did, Alisa and Suzuka finally caught up to her.

The girls were caught up in a little bit of frenzy, wondering what to do about the ferret. Alisa suggested that since it was injured, they should take it to a hospital. Suzuka countered that since it was an animal, they should take it to a vet. Nanoha, on the other hand, was just confused and concerned for the ferret's safety. The mentioned ferret looked up at the girl holding him before falling asleep again.

* * *

**[Makibara Animal Hospital]  
[No BGM]**

Within almost ten minutes, the girls safely got the ferret to the vet. Sonic had followed suit and stood outside the office so he could listen into the conversation between the trio of grade-schoolers and the vet.

'_There's something about that ferret too…'_ Sonic mentally observed, _'I'm pretty sure that it was his voice I heard earlier, same with that girl too. But why? What is going on here?'_

Thankfully, the ferret's wounds weren't deep, but it was a bit weak according to the vet. He did wake up for a moment and stared at Nanoha in particular. Then it showed her his gratitude for help by softly licking her finger, much like any other domesticated animal would. The girls had to cut their visit short; however, otherwise they would've been late to cram school.

Sonic then came to a decision himself that as much as he'd like to figure out what his connection to the brunette was, or how he kept feeling the mental tug, there was one other issue he had to deal with: finding a place to stay for the night. The blue hedgehog gazed down at his gloved hand, looking at the small amount of yen he had left, saved up from selling some of the scrap metals from the mechs he thrashed to merchants who acted as middlemen in buying out some metals in order to resell them to other companies who could make metallic parts such as shelving units for shops.

'_Ah... the one issue I never thought I'd have to deal with this early..'_ the hedgehog mentally groaned, _'I have enough money to probably get me ONE night at a little hotel and maybe a small meal for dinner if I'm not picky… but other than that, I need to find a way to get more money fast if I'm gonna be spending a week here.'_

With a soft sigh, the hedgehog rushed off to take care of his own business, hoping it would provide enough of a distraction to keep that young human girl off his mind.

* * *

**[Later that same night]  
[No BGM]**

It wasn't easy, but somehow Sonic had managed to book himself a nice little hotel room and at the same time get some nice dinner to go with it. As luck would favor him, he found a little local inn that was owned by an elderly woman. The reasons for her low pricing was a little bit of a personal philosophy she followed; that one should never have to overpay for something so simple and necessary. And maybe it was just her friendly demeanor, or how anxious and nervous the blue hedgehog was, she took his money and gave him a room key without any questions asked. She even offered him some of the curry she made for dinner.

'_Well, especially after that nice old lady was kind enough to give me a room, I'd say that this counts as a decent start to a vacation.'_ The hedgehog grinned in satisfaction after he finished his dish of curry, which almost was as good as his favorite food, chili dogs. To work off such a delicious meal, Sonic had planned to stretch his legs for a bit then go out for a nice long run.

**[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X OST]**

"Huh?" the blue hedgehog paused for a moment in his stretches as he felt yet another tug on his mind, only this one was quite different, almost like someone was calling out to him versus the tug he felt earlier. With a soft sigh, he closed his eyes to focus on whom or what was calling out to him, _'now what?'_

'_Two…I sense two that can hear my voice... Please both of you, I need your help... please lend me your strength'_ the familiar male voice echoed in his mind.

**[Midori-ya Café]**

* * *

Nanoha Takamachi stood right beside her bed, her eyes too were closed and focused on the voice that called out to her. Deep in the back of her mind, she too felt the tug from the other presence, but she never could tell where it came from and it was something she just had to shrug off.

'_Is it the ferret that's calling me?'_ the girl questioned in her thoughts, _'If that's true, then what about the other presence? Could he be calling it too?'_

'_Please, come to where I am...'_ the young male voice pleaded again,_ 'the time we have left… the danger... It's too late!'_

The voice cut off from there, almost similar to a phone call suddenly losing connection. Nanoha sighed and laid her head on her bed for a moment or two before making her decision. Something was going on, and it involved the ferret she and her friends had found. With her mind set, she rushed off towards the vet's office.

* * *

**[Makibara Animal Hospital]  
[BGM: "Knight of the Goddess" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]**

Even with the ability to break the sound barrier without breaking a sweat, Sonic still only managed to arrive at the hospital just as Nanoha did; though she appeared to be a bit out of breath and wasn't able to spot the blue hedgehog as he hopped into a nearby tree.

All of a sudden the both of them heard an odd, screeching noise that made them cover their ears in pain from how loud the noise blasted their eardrums and further in.

'_This noise!' _The two of them gripped their heads tighter, only to release them when the noise suddenly subsided. Then they both noticed that everything stopped around them, such as the stoplights, almost like time itself had come to a complete halt.

With a shake of his head, Sonic watched as Nanoha ran in, and at the same time, the same ferret who had been calling out to them both, rush out from the hospital and straight for the tree that the blue hedgehog currently had perched himself from. The ferret wasn't alone; he was chased by what looked like a weird furry monster with distinct pinkish eyes that just oozed out a "DANGER" warning.

Fear evident in his movements, the ferret ran right up the tree. That in turn, caused the beast that was after him to follow suit, only its momentum and superior strength would cause the tree to topple down once it hit.

"Oh... of course, the ONE tree that has the blue hedgehog in it gets thrashed by the weird monster!" Sonic shouted as he jumped from the tree to the top of a nearby wall. He let out a sigh as he landed, "So much for my vacation, looks like I'm gonna have to do some fighting!"

Nanoha blinked as she noticed the blue hedgehog on the wall nearby, however, before she could say anything, her attention was shifted again to the tree that the ferret ran up. Just as the monster toppled the tree, the ferret jumped from the branch it made it too. Noticing that the ferret was heading right for her, Nanoha opened her arms up and was able to catch him just in time.

"W-what's going on?!" Nanoha asked in a mix of confusion and shock, "W-what is that thing?!"

"You came for me..." The ferret suddenly spoke to Nanoha, probably ignoring the blue hedgehog in the background.

"You spoke?!" Nanoha flailed her arms a little bit in surprise

"Yeah... way to pay attention to the blue hedgehog right here." Sonic quipped cynically to Nanoha and the ferret, though his light-hearted tone showed he wasn't serious

"Correction, you BOTH came for me..." The ferret said after a small sigh, suddenly getting the sinking feeling that he wasn't going to quite like the blue one who happened to hear him.

"Nya..ha..ha." Nanoha looked up at the hedgehog and offered a small sheepish grin

"Kidding, kidding" Sonic waved his arms in dismissal, "I quip for stress relief. Kami knows I've needed that in the past week or so."

"Eh?" Nanoha blinked, wondering what the hedgehog was referring to, _'Could he be from South Island? It would make sense with the timeline from what he said'_

'_Stress relief?'_ The ferret stared as well, _'this guy couldn't be any younger than me or her, so what could've happened that even HE would need stress relief?!'_

"Uh... as much as I'm such a nice sight to stare at" Sonic coughed to drag the two out of their staring phase, "Need I draw your attention to the tree that just got crushed?"

Sure enough, as they looked, the tree was pushed to the side and the monster itself stared right at them with a dangerous grin and glint on its expression.

"W-what is that thing?" Nanoha slowly stood up and stared at the creature in surprise.

"Uh… A giant… tentacle... furball?" Sonic voiced his observation of the monster, "Yeah, you'll have to come back to me for a quip on that"

"Something that's been chasing me" the ferret said in a soft tone, "You both seem to be of the proper nature... I'd like to ask that you lend me your strength."

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't planning on helping out." Sonic replied, a sentiment that Nanoha had also shared.

"I come from another world in search of something" The ferret explained, "But I don't think I'll be able to handle the weight of this task alone. I know I may be an inconvenience to you both, and that neither of you even know each other, but I have to ask the help of those with the proper nature to help. I promise I'll repay you both."

"As much as I'd love some extra "pay" to live here, I can't take any payment. It's just not my thing" Sonic shook his head, though he did get into a battle stance, "But that doesn't mean I won't help. Heh... this creep won't even be a WARM UP!"

Without so much as a second thought, the blue hedgehog revved his legs and ran in place until his legs appeared to be a red finger-8 loop; his signature Super-Peel-Out, used to build up his true blue, supersonic speed. Within a matter of milliseconds, the hedgehog blast off at the speed of sound and rushed for the monster.

"S-such speed..." the ferret gawked with a look of total surprise that looked outright comical for a ferret's face.

"S-so fast!" Nanoha equally gawked, her jaw dropped open and her eyes white and circular to emphasize her shock.

* * *

**[VS Jewel Seed Monster]  
[BGM: "Worlds Collide" Final Fantasy XIII-2]**

In the hedgehog's mind, the fight would have gone by in a script that included, but wasn't limited to: amazing the on looking two with his amazing speed, heroically rushing the monster; curl up in his spin-dash just before impact to maximize his speed and power, and probably demolish the creep in one strike. Sadly, the movie script did not include the monster's tentacles gripping the spin-dashed hedgehog and throwing him against a nearby wall, because that was EXACTLY what the monster just did.

"Ugh-gah!" the hedgehog groaned in considerable pain as he felt the hard wall on his furred skin, "T-that's probably going to hurt in the morning..."

"Are you alright?!" Nanoha asked in concern as she watched the hedgehog slowly get up, struggling though to maintain his balance.

"He won't last much longer at this rate" the ferret said in blunt honesty as he observed, "You'll have to help him"

"S-shut up, baka-ferret!" Sonic shouted as he gritted his teeth in determination, stood upright and looked to be in some considerable amount of pain from the blow, but he did not back down, "I did not survive my home almost getting destroyed by some crazed scientist jerk just to die here!"

'_So he is from South Island…'_ Nanoha couldn't help but feel some sympathy for the guy, _'Poor guy'_

'_I'm missing something here, I just know it…'_ The ferret shook his head.

Determination filling his very core, the blue hedgehog put all that he had into his next spin-dash. He charged up so fast that particles of light could've been seen surrounding him. In a burst of speed that not only broke the sound barrier, but arguably could've put a small dent in the light barrier, the hedgehog blast forward and straight into an all-or-nothing charge against the monster.

Like a knife through butter, the hedgehog cut straight through the monster, but when he unrolled, the hedgehog just stayed there, struggling to get back on his feet. He looked completely drained from the last attack, and for good reason, as he did literally just took whatever energy he had left and put it in his last dash. It seemed, at least for a few seconds that the hedgehog had won, as the monster appeared to be on the ground after taking the spin-attack head on.

However, to everyone's surprise and horror, the monster reformed itself, almost like it didn't take any damage at all. The hedgehog noticed this, and then winced as he felt one of the monster's tentacles wrap around his leg, cutting it just enough to draw a little bit of blood.

"Eh... heh..." Sonic had a grin on his face, but it was one of the grim kinds, "This is gonna hurt..."

Unfortunately for was Sonic, his last words were more true than he wanted them to be. For the next half-minute or so, the monster drove the tentacle holding the blue hedgehog into wall after wall. There wasn't anything Sonic could do to stop it and every blow felt like he was getting crushed by a boulder. Try as he might, he couldn't hold back his grunts of pain. Then, like a child bored with its toy, the monster just dropped the limp hedgehog. There was a rather unnatural, disturbing and painful "bounce" that the hedgehog made on landing that took him about less than a foot away from where Nanoha and the ferret were.

Feeling concern for the poor hedgehog, Nanoha, still gripping onto the ferret, rushed toward his side. To her surprise and shock, not only was the hedgehog awake despite his beat up condition, he was actually chuckling about it.

"Well… that.. could've gone better" Sonic said dryly, "To recap, my legs are probably broken, definitely hurt and bleeding… same thing can be said for my arms, my vision's blurring every now and then; and I'm feeling light headed… Yup! It's official, I'm screwed"

"You're making jokes even now?" Nanoha asked, not quite sure if she should give the hedgehog the courtesy of a laugh or not.

"Why not?" if he could, Sonic would've shrugged, "If I'm gonna die because of my recklessness, I might as well have a quip or two about it."

"Actually.. there is a way for you to survive" The ferret piped up, "But, once this happens, neither of your lives will ever be the same again."

"Just tell me how…" Nanoha didn't care about any "changes" to her life. After all, her life had already been changed enough in one day, _'and I can't stand and watch him die while I'm able to do something about it.'_

"Well… I was going to tell you about this before he rushed in, but it involves magic" The ferret started to explain, then gestured with his paw to the red jewel on his collar, "Take this in your dominant hand"

Nanoha nodded and took the gem in her left hand, "It's warm…"

"Now you'll need to recite a magical code, then you'll become a mage" the ferret explained further.

"Maho? Mage?" Nanoha blinked then pointed at Sonic, "But how does this save him?"

"I was getting to that." The ferret sent her an annoyed look at the interruption, "After you become a mage, you can make him your "Familiar". And, well to put it simply, link his life to yours."

"You sure it'll work?" Nanoha asked, "I mean I don't even know incantations or any of that stuff."

"And even if she did, she'd be just wasting her time on me." Sonic let out a defeated sigh, "Because it's my impulsiveness and recklessness that has me in this situation in the first place, and to put it bluntly, if I'm too stupid to do that, I'm not worth sav-"

SLAP!

**[BGM: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV]**

The hedgehog was cut off of his little self-criticism phase by a loud and rather painful slap on his cheek, courtesy of Nanoha. The ferret winced in phantom pain when he saw the red handprint on the cheek.

"Don't say that!" Nanoha's eyes threatened to leak tears as the girl pleaded with him, "Don't say another word! We all have our faults, and sometimes they do get us hurt, but that doesn't make us any less worth. You are worth saving, and even though I don't know you, I can't just stand here and watch you die if I can prevent it."

'_She's willing to do this for me? Why? Though she is right… I can't give up now!' _The blue hedgehog thought over what the girl said for the moment then said only one word, "Sonic"

"Eh?" the girl blinked

"My name" Sonic explained briefly, "Sonic the Hedgehog"

"Sonic, that's a nice name" Nanoha smiled in a friendly fashion in response, "My name's Takamachi Nanoha, but you can call me Nanoha. My friends call me by my name, you can be my friend too if you say my name. That's the first step to becoming friends."

"Friends, eh?" Sonic gave the concept a quick thought before flashing her his trademark smirk, thought it pained him to do so, "Why not? I'll be your friend… but first… will the talking ferret please continue his boring chat about magics and stuff?"

**[No BGM]**

"H-hai.." The ferret nodded, then cast a quick glance at the monster, only to regret it as the beast, after looking somewhat bored, began to ready itself to strike again, "I know the incantation.. so repeat after me.. I, the one who accepted this mission…"

"I, the one who accepted this mission" Nanoha repeated, then followed what the ferret said, word by word, to the red gem in her hand, "by the ancient contract, order you to release your power. As the winds fill the sky and the stars fill the heavens, so shall my heart fill with courage, and my hands with magic! Raising Heart, Set up!"

"**Alright! Standby ready!" **The gem spoke in a distinct female voice that almost sounded alive, if it weren't a device.

"Alright, now that the device is activated, try to focus your mind on some images" the ferret continued his explanation, "Focus on what will give you the power to access magic, your staff. Then what'll protect your body, like a strong armor."

"Oy, isn't that asking a bit much of her?" the peanut gallery, aka Sonic, asked.

"That's not all, in addition, you need to focus on him as well" the ferret added in reference to the seriously injured hedgehog, "Feel your magic flow into him and empower his life. Doing that will bind his life to yours as your familiar. Finally you'll need to focus on what form your familiar might take, should you wish to change that. Though you should probably try to picture him as a bodyguard of sorts, including what would he wear and wield as your familiar."

"U-um…" Nanoha tried hard to focus, but found some difficulty in really finding a "strong armor", so instead she went with the first things that came to mind. As for Sonic, she didn't want to change his overall form. She felt that it was his hedgehog form that gave him the unique flair he had. She again designed his garb and weapon the same way as her own, the first things that came to mind. The device seemed to cooperate and engulfed her, and a surprised Sonic in a flash of light.

**[Insert: "Raising Heart, Set up" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha THE MOVIE 1st OST]**

Inside the bright light, the red gem grew to almost three times its size, relatively almost, if not the same as Nanoha's fist. The gem became suspended and held in a golden-yellowish tinted near-circle that was the magic staff's head. The head extended a long, silver pole with a blue piece at the end.

When Nanoha grabbed the staff in her left hand, her clothes disappeared, but were quickly replaced by a blue and white dress, similar to her school uniform, only with a few additions. The shoulders of her dress were thicker, sort of like a jacket, and at the end of the sleeves along her arms were thick, blue wrist guards that were fastened together by a screw. Her hands had black, fingerless gloves and her shoes were white with a red gems on the feet. White bands replaced the green ones that tied her hair into her traditional pigtails look.

For Sonic, the only changes to his body were his wounds being instantly healed by the magic that flowed into him, he was still his cool blue hedgehog self. Much similar to Nanoha, Sonic too received his weapon first, only instead of the staff, he received a set of twin kodachi blades; one for each hand. The blades came to him so that in the the initial grip; his right hand would hold its sword in a normal grip, while his left hand held its respective blade in a reverse grip.

His shoes, scarf and gloves remained the same, though his wrists were given light metal arm-braces for protection in close combat, as well as to keep the second blade held in the reverse grip from accidentally cutting himself. He also gained armor similar to that of a Japanese samurai: a light, form-fitting lamellar armor for his front that provided solid protection without sacrificing any mobility. The armor was shaped in a tunic that covered most of the hedgehog's upper body and shoulders, leaving only his back, legs just below the knee and forearms bare. The armor had a white and blue color scheme along with some reddish tints to match.

The duo finished their "transformation" by posing back-to-back with their respective weapons held in full view.

* * *

**[BGM end]**

The whole transformation took a matter of around 3-5 seconds in real time. The flash, which had disoriented and kept the two out of view of the ferret and monster. The two who were affected by it all just blinked simultaneously.

"E-eh?!" Both of them let out a surprised cry at the same time.

"What's all this? The staff.. and this dress" Nanoha gazed at her outfit and staff in awe and confusion.

"I feel… alive! Even more than ever… Like a burst of energy just came and boosted me even more than I'd ever thought possible" Sonic voiced his thoughts in awe, then gazed at his swords and armor, "Snazzy looking swords and armor too! And I don't feel any of this stuff weighing me down!"

"Sugoi…" The ferret gasped in awe at the brilliant sight before him, and not only that, but the power those two were giving off were off the charts.

The moment of awe and admiring had to come to a quick end, however, as the monster roared to remind everyone that it was still there, and it still had a few targets to chase after.

"Ehhh?!" Nanoha held her new staff tightly to her in nervousness, but her new "familiar" on the other hand had a much different mindset than her.

"Yeah, yeah; we hear ya you ugly… tentacle… furball thing! Okay I still haven't thought of a clever quip for you, but I'll get one before this night's over.. Before I get to that" Sonic pointed his right hand sword at the monster then smirked as he took on a battle stance in front of his mage, "IT'S PAYBACK TIME!"

**[To be continued!]**

**[Ending: "Little Wish (Lyrical Step)" Yukari Tamura]**

**[End of Chapter 1]**

* * *

Ha ha ha! How's about a CLIFFY to start my new story off, eh? Huh! Oh yeah, this is how you come back from a long hiatus! Anyways, this'll be the pilot, I'll get the next chapter going as well as my other two stories as well. I think what I'm going to do is set aside certain weeks, like one week I'll work on and update Lyrical Record and Night Sky while another week will be for Lyrical Familiar. Character designs are not exactly my forte, but I'm trying my best.. I'd like to hear some input as well on this so I can improve. But one thing's for sure, I will be able to balance this and my schoolwork out! Til then, I'll see you all in the next post.. oh and if anyone has ideas on video game arcs, I'll be taking them.. this set before Sonic 2 so doors are open.. However, I will not use original characters, I'll go as far as small shout out cameos but that's it… Oh and I left a nifty classic video game reference somewhere, can anyone find it?


	2. Chapter 2

SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in another new chapter to the Lyrical Familiar. Well, the debut of the pilot for this story has given me a good idea that will balance out my fanfictions, along with my schoolwork. I won't work on all 3 at once during the week. Instead I'm going to set aside weeks in which I do work.. Like one week I'll work on this one and the next I'll work on Night Sky and Lyrical Record. This should keep me from getting overwhelmed. For this chapter I will also show an opening "script" much like the ones I did in my other stories, it'll go for the opening only though as that will have more content in it. I forgot to do it on the pilot episode. Anyways, here we go, enjoy!

* * *

_Previously on Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar_

"_I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog, and I thought my vacation away from home would do me some good" Sonic's voice narrated, "But here I find myself drawn into a battle thanks to a talking ferret and Nanoha… I never thought that my first day away from South Island could've led to this.."_

"_My name is Nanoha Takamachi, and I used to be a regular 9 year old, 3__rd__ grade elementary school student, at least until my life was changed forever by magic." Nanoha continued, "It all started when I found the injured ferret. He called out to me for help, and I followed, not knowing what was ahead."_

"_The same night I arrived, trouble brewed" Sonic took over the narration, "I followed the call to the same animal hospital I saw Nanoha and her friends enter in. The ferret rushed over to us and pleaded for help; help from the monster hot on his tail. I tried to take the creep on all by myself…"_

"_It was painful to watch…" Nanoha continued, "Sonic was beaten by the monster; beaten to within an inch of his life."_

"_I probably should've been killed by that monster, but something kept me alive; maybe it just wasn't my time yet; or maybe it was the heart-filled plea by Nanoha" Sonic took over again, "But after that, the real magic happened."_

"_I recited an incantation that forever changed my life." Nanoha finished her part of the narration, "I felt an amazing power flow through me and Sonic.."_

"_This power… gave me new strength, and it linked our lives together." Sonic ended his own as well, "Now we have an enemy to face, and I'm itching for some payback… Little did we know that this was only the first of many battles for us."_

"_Sonic the Hedgehog: The Lyrical Familiar" Sonic and Nanoha declared at the same time, "Is about to begin."_

* * *

**[Intro]  
[Opening: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

The music begins at a slow start as Raising Heart, initially in standby form, shifts into its main staff/device form. It is then shown in Nanoha's left hand as she stood, back-to-back with Sonic. Both of them are in their respective Barrier Jackets, which were blown gently by a small breeze that added to the peaceful, bright and sunny backdrop for theme. Their eyes are closed as if in deep thought. The viewpoint catches their side profile as the duo began to open their eyes slowly, almost to the pace of the music.

Scene shift to a view of a clear blue sky of a warm, sunny day; as a yellow star logo appeared with the logo of a blue hedgehog right in the middle of it. The following text appeared in Japanese kanji/katakana and English:

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar**

Nanoha, wearing an orange skirt and brighter orange jacket outfit, is shown, sitting calmly in the grass, with her knees close to her body and her eyes closed as if in deep thought again. She felt a sudden, but gentle nudge from the tip of a small, red shoe. She looked towards the source and found Sonic, lying on the grass with his hands folded behind his head like a pillow. With a small, soft smile on her face, she lightly taps the hedgehog, waking him up; they both turn towards the invisible "camera" and while Nanoha winks cutely, Sonic had a short, confident grin.  
**hiza wo kakaete heya no katasumi **_("I was always so uneasy that I was shaking")_**  
itsumo fuan de furuete ita **_("hugging my knees in the corner of my room.")_**  
"hontou" wo shiru koto ga kowakute TOBIRA wo tojita **_("I was afraid of knowing the "truth" and closed the door to it.")_

The images of Sonic and Nanoha are reeled as if by an old fashioned camera in a transition to the next scene. A girl with bright yellow hair and red eyes, wearing a black long-sleeve shirt and matching skirt combination sits on a couch that sat against a window with a view overlooking the city. Lying next to the couch was a large red-furred wolf, which the girl pets with her left hand. The girl softly placed the fingertips of her right hand on her own forehead as she stared at the ceiling above her.  
**yasashii uso ni ibasho wo mitsukete **_("Through a kind lie, I discovered where I should be.")  
_**yume no naka ni nigekonda **_("I fled and took refuge in my dreams")_

Nanoha and Sonic stood side-by-side on the vast fields of green with the backdrop of a large blue lake and waterfall. The soil of the fields has a distinct checkerboard pattern to it. Nanoha held up her device as it glows a pink-ish hue, within an instant, the clothes she was wearing were replaced by her Barrier _Jacket_; while Sonic, who wasn't wearing clothes, gained his Samurai-motif Barrier Jacket as well. The duo takes to the skies and flies swiftly through the terrain.**  
daremo shiranai kodoku no umi wo fukai ao ni someteku sabishisa kakusu**_ ("No one knows of the lonely sea being dyed a deep blue color that hides my loneliness")_**  
ichizu na omoi **_("With wholehearted feelings,")_**  
kimi no KOKORO wo kizutsukete iru **_("I wounded your heart")_

The scene shifts to the blonde girl from before and Nanoha flying towards one another. The blonde wields a pole-axe with a yellow orb that shined for a brief moment before the two clashed with one another. At the same time, Sonic and the red wolf also clash with the hedgehog's twin blades meeting the wolf's claws.  
**hitomi no oku no himitsu suikomaresou na **_("The secret within your eyes makes me want to soak it up")  
_**egao no ura shinjisu ni yawaraka na ai boku ga todoke ni iku yo **_("I'll bring the truth behind your smile with a warm love")_

With a small, blue diamond-cut jewel shimmering as a brief backdrop, the scene shifts to show Nanoha's family and best friends, all smiling kindly and supportively in the general direction of the invisible "camera". The viewpoint lands back in the green area again, only showing a young, orangish-yellow furred two-tailed fox, accompanied by a pink hedgehog in a green t-shirt and orange skirt outfit.  
**furetara kowaresou na nukumori ga ima kako wo hanare afuredasu **_("If I touch it, the warmth that seems so breakable will break away from its past and overflow.")_

The scene shifts to show Sonic, slowly walking away in a random direction with his head hung low. He is quickly stopped by Nanoha, who grabs his hand, gives him one of the brightest and kindest smiles seen and drags him back in the opposite direction. They stop at a rooftop and gaze out at the vast city beneath them.  
**zutto soba ni iru kara kanashii kage ni madowanai de **_("Because you're always by my side I will no longer be puzzled over the shadow of loneliness.")_

The last scene shift shows a flurry of Sakura petals which are blown away to reveal the text and logo from before.

**Sonic the Hedgehog: The Lyrical Familiar**

* * *

**Chapter 2  
first fight together; a lyrical incantation!**

* * *

**[Makibara Animal Hospital]  
[Time: 8:55pm*]  
[No BGM]**

To say that Nanoha Takamachi was surprised, and maybe a little overwhelmed, would be an understatement. Given her situation though, it would be easy to understand her feelings. In a matter of minutes, she went from an "ordinary" third grade schoolgirl to a mage. With an outfit and staff that came out of nowhere, not to mention the powers that awakened with the objects. To add to that, part of the new power was also constantly channeled into the blue hedgehog to her side. The power formed what could be best described as an invisible "link".

On the opposite end of the link was Sonic, the blue hedgehog who was saved thanks to the new power. He too felt the "link" between himself and the human, and it felt just like the "tug" he felt earlier that day, only it was much stronger. Like his new "mistress", Sonic wasn't able to keep his surprised feelings suppressed, though at least he wasn't as overwhelmed.

However, the time for freaking out was short and the tentacle and fur-filled monster looked like it was about to make a move. This brought the ferret out of his amazed phase.

"It's coming!" the talking ferret warned the new mage and familiar

* * *

**[VS Jewel Seed Monster]  
[BGM: "World's Collide" Final Fantasy XIII-2]**

The creature took a massive leap up into the sky and rolled while in its ascension to build up the momentum. Once it got high enough it let gravity take over and fell over the duo; intent on crushing them both in a massive body slam.

Nanoha could only stare as the creature descended rapidly on her, while Sonic looked like he was about ready to pounce and take the hit for her. Before he could do that, at the last second, Nanoha held out her new staff in front of her in a desperate attempt of protection.

"_**Protection!"**_ the staff's jewel declared and just before the monster made impact, it was blocked by the sudden appearance of a pink bubble-like barrier. The barrier covered both mage and familiar and kept the monster at bay. While Nanoha had her eyes closed tight, Sonic was calm and that allowed him to watch as the monster looked like it was hurt by the barrier.

The monster suddenly burst out into tens of pieces. The sudden boom added to the pieces speed. The whole scene was littered by it, the biggest hit of damage, aside from the walls and ground, was the nearby light post, which was cut clean in half. The larger half of the post toppled and crashed into the wall it was facing.

"E-EEEH?!" Nanoha could only stare in disbelief at the amount of damage done by her barrier and the resounding effects.

"Wow!" Sonic said and whistled at his new master, "Nice mess, I'm not cleaning that up though."

"Our devices use a "programming" system that lets our magic take form." The ferret explained to the two about the magic while the monster appeared to be out of commission, "In order to make the system work, however, its user needs to provide it with their spiritual energy"

"I have a hunch that the spiritual energy is also keeping me alive, right?" Sonic asked as he came to a guess.

"Hai" the ferret nodded, "When a mage creates a familiar, they, to put it one way, "share a heart", their lives are linked. However, just because a mage creates a familiar, doesn't mean that the familiar's going to be completely loyal to them. That's why, normally, familiars are created by a contract."

"Contract?" Nanoha asked, curious about what she did in making Sonic her familiar.

"Correct; a contract that grants a familiar life to fulfill as specific task. When the task is complete, the familiar will disappear" the ferret continued his explanation.

"Wait!" Sonic interrupted him, "You're saying I'm going to disappear?!"

"If you were made a familiar as part of a contract, then yes." The ferret answered, "However, this doesn't appear to be that specific case. You were made her familiar in an act of kindness, and are not bound by any contract. So, to put it one way, you have nothing that compels you to obey your new "master"

"Technically I don't, unless I wanted t- HEADS UP!" the hedgehog was about to say something, but stopped short when he saw the monster reform into its ugly self and rushed itself at the three.

Nanoha let out a soft gasp in surprise as she watched the beast charge. Then, to her surprise, she saw the blue hedgehog step in front of her and block the monsters attack with his twin blades. Sonic, despite having no experience with swords, which was something his master noted; was able to push the monster away from him and then spin-dashed into it with his swords acting as support.

'_Even though he doesn't seem to know what he's doing, he's still trying his hardest.'_ Nanoha thought to herself as she watched Sonic fend off the monster. Determined to give him some help, she turned to the ferret, "How do I stop this thing?"

"The "thing" is called a Jewel Seed; it was born from a tremendous power; the form we are seeing it took to protect itself." The ferret explained, "To stop it, you need to seal it with your staff, returning it to its original form."

"I don't understand, but how do I do that?" Nanoha asked while Sonic, taking advantage of a brief pause, took a step back to listen in as well.

"What you did before was one of two types of magic, offensive and defensive." The ferret answered, "They are basic forms of magic you activate by thinking about them. Focus on what you want a spell to do and let the mana shape itself. Also, most of the spells you have are also available to be accessed by your familiar as well."

"So I can cast magic too is what you're saying?" Sonic asked

"Hai, but first she needs an incantation" the ferret answered

"Incantation?" Nanoha stood there, not quite as confused anymore

"Listen to your heart" the talking ferret nodded and advised, "I have no doubt that an incantation will come to you."

"And I'll keep the monster busy while you do that" Sonic nodded, then suddenly grinned as he turned to face the monster, who looked like it was about to rush for another round, "Aha! Tutorial Boss! That's its new name!"

"Tutorial Boss?" the ferret blinked, "Why are you calling it that?"

"Uh.. You're giving us a tutorial while we're fighting it?" Sonic deadpanned as he watched the aforementioned tutorial boss rush at his direction.

"Walked right into that one" the ferret hung his head in comical defeat, he then watched as the blue hedgehog familiar did not move from his spot. Curious, he inquired, "What are you doing?"

"Wait for it…" Sonic focused, trying to find something in the new "link" he had with Nanoha. Satisfied, he waited patiently for the Jewel Seed monster to close the distance between itself and him. When the monster got within the maximum striking distance, the blue hedgehog took a makeshift defensive stance with his blades, "Protection!"

Sure enough, the barrier spell appeared and did its job in not only shielding Sonic from the attack, but also kept the monster occupied for Nanoha to come up with an incantation to seal it. And it didn't take long for that either.

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha called out the incantation she came up with. She held up her device high into the air as the head extended in length by about 3 inches. Pink wings sprouted from near the head.

With a grin, Sonic watched as pink strips of mana surrounded the monster. The grin turned into an inquisitive and curious glance as he saw the roman numerals "XXI" appear just above the monster's eyes.

"XXI… that's 21" the hedgehog observed, "Oy! Talking-Ferret, what's with the number?"

"That's the serial number for the Jewel Seed" the talking ferret, who still hasn't revealed his name yet, answered, "The serial numbers help keep track of the seeds when they're sealed. So to seal this one, number 21, the specific number must be called out."

"Jewel Seed, serial 21, Seal!" Nanoha called out. Her device chimed in affirmation and began the sealing. More pink streams of light bombarded the monster until it couldn't handle it. Within a matter of seconds it completely disappeared in a bright flash of pink light.

"B-bright.." Sonic winced and had to cover his eyes for the moment because of how close he was to the monster prior to its sealing. When the light settled, the monster was gone, and in its place was a small blue jewel that was cut in a diamond shape. As the hedgehog was the closest, he was the first to notice, "Okay… the big bad scary monster's gone, but what the heck is this?"

"A Jewel Seed" the ferret answered, then turned to Nanoha, "Touch it with Raising Heart"

"Hai" Nanoha nodded and lightly tapped the tip of the staff to the jewel, there was a mechanical sound that came from the device before it sealed the seed inside.

"_**Receipt No. 21, sealed!"**_The device declared.

**[Boss Cleared]  
[Jingle: "Act Clear" Sonic CD (US) version]**

Nanoha blinked as her device flashed again and she found herself back in the clothes she had on before the fight. The same had also applied to Sonic, only the wounds he had suffered at the hands of the monster were still absent.

In a customary, at least to him, fashion, Sonic celebrated the victory with a pose. His right hand was closed aside from his index finger, which he wagged in his confident glory; his left foot was behind the right and tilted so that the tip of his left shoe lightly tapped against the heel of his right, and his other arm was bent.

"Um… Sonic?" Nanoha couldn't help but stare at her new familiar's antics; she had to restrain a small giggle over how cute the boy looked, "W-what are you doing?"

"Posing, it's practically required to have a catchy jingle after you beat a boss" Sonic explained as if he was talking about the weather, "Gotta have a nice pose and some cool music."

"Uh… we don't have any of that.." the ferret hung his head low again, wondering where the heck the hedgehog came from.

"Buzzkill…" Sonic deadpanned. Then, as he was about to settle down from the pose he thought so much of, a catchy theme started to play, only from the most unusual of sources.

**[BGM: "Victory fanfare" Final Fantasy VI]**

"Yeah, now THAT'S a theme!" The blue hedgehog rocked his head back-and-forth to appreciate the music. Curious enough, he took a glance at the direction of the music and was greeted by the humorous sight of his master, with her cheeks tinted red in embarrassment and her head hung low in a poor attempt to cover it, "uh.. Nanoha?"

"T-that's my cellphone.." Nanoha sighed and pulled out her cellphone to check the caller id and instantly regretted that choice, "Okaa-san!"

"Something wrong?" The ferret asked, curious about what made the girl upset

"I left home without telling my family when you called" Nanoha explained, "I kinda hoped they wouldn't notice."

"Well that didn't work out" Sonic said with a shrug, "Better answer and face the music."

"W-wait you can't te- mmmph!" The ferret tried to say something to dissuade the girl but found his mouth pinched shut by two gloved fingers.

"No no no! Bad ferret! Bad!" Sonic half-teasingly, half-serious scolded the talking ferret, who still has yet to introduce himself to the two, "You no give bad advice. If there are more of these "jewel seed" things… then odds are this isn't our last battle, and we're gonna need to be prepared; ne, Nanoha?"

"H-hai.." the girl sighed as she opened her phone; she had the sinking feeling that the arguments between Sonic and the ferret would become a bit of a running gag; she tapped a button and accepted the call, "moshi moshi?"

**[No BGM]**

While Nanoha was busy with her phone call, Sonic and the ferret got into another argument of how much of the incident they should tell her friends and family. Both had valid, yet conflicting points. Sonic argued that there would be no way to keep the incident secret, while the ferret argued that her family weren't involved and shouldn't be put into unnecessary danger. Their argument was short-lived; however, as Nanoha hung up her phone with a tired sigh.

"I told them that a lot has happened and that I'll explain tomorrow" the girl informed the two, then slowly started the long trek back to her home, "What are you two going to do?"

"I'm following you" the ferret answered, "I don't have anywhere to stay for the moment"

"I have a hotel room, but it's halfway across the city at least; and I'm still a bit winded from that fight" the hedgehog also let out a tired sigh, "So, you're stuck with me too"

With everything all decided, the trio left the scene of the incident; the damage from the battle would last for quite some time, but thankfully nobody innocent was injured.

* * *

**[Midori-ya Café]  
[No BGM]**

It took them approximately twenty minutes, but Nanoha, with Sonic and the talking ferret in tow, managed to arrive at her home safely. Her family patiently waited up for them in concern and it came to a surprise to find that Nanoha wasn't alone.

"I'm home" Nanoha announced after a tired yawn; she looked like she could've fallen asleep on the spot, but somehow she stayed awake, "Sorry for worrying you guys."

"Nanoha-chan, are you alright?" Momoko asked in concern; and noticed the others with her as well, though her concern of her daugther's wellbeing, for the moment, overruled the urges she had of geeking out over the sure cuteness of the ferret and hedgehog, "You look worn out,"

"Nya..ha.. it's a long story" the girl let out another yawn as she started to wobble in place, "So.. tired"

"Well you better get to bed before you collapse" Miyuki, Nanoha's older sister, said as she urged the girl upstairs to her bedroom.

While Nanoha was ushered to her room to turn in for the night, the rest of her family turned their gaze to the blue hedgehog and talking ferret who accompanied her. Their concerned expressions asked the un-needed question about the need to explain the situation.

"Heh heh.. I'm just as worn out as her" the blue hedgehog waved his arms defensively, "You want answers, talk to the ferret."

"I guess this can't be avoided now…" the ferret sighed in defeat, he knew he had a lot of explaining to do; but wasn't quite ready, "Could this wait until tomorrow morning? A lot has happened and I need some time to figure out how to explain it."

"Hai" Shiro nodded in agreement. If he was surprised by the talking animals, he didn't show it behind his calm demeanor. Though the safety of his daughter may have played a hand in his thoughts as well, "You can use the couch if you wish."

"Arigatou-gozaimasu" the ferret nodded his head in a polite gesture and walked over to the mentioned couch.

With the ferret's sleeping situation taken care of in the form of a small basket on part of the living room's couch; the attention was then shifted to the other uninvited and weary guest, Sonic.

"Uh..." the poor blue hedgehog made a soft gulp noise in nervousness.

"You can take the couch as well" Momoko, as if noticing the hedgehog's nerves, displayed a calm and caring tone, "You look like you've had better days too. And it wouldn't be right if we didn't extend a hand of gratitude after you returned our daughter home safely."

"Thank you" Sonic, finding his spirit lifted thanks to the Takamachi family, bowed in gratitude. He muttered, but not quietly enough to not be heard, "If anything she saved me…"

Shiro and Momoko caught what he said, but, in respect to the situation and conditions, decided to refrain from asking for the time being. With everything all said and done, the night ended rather peacefully.

* * *

**[That morning]  
[No BGM]  
[7:00 am]**

After a nice, peaceful and refreshing slumber, Nanoha woke up with a bright smile on her face. To her, the events that happened last night could've been a dream she had while she slept. Maybe she thought of that as she prepared to get ready for school, but she was in for a rude awakening if she followed that mindset.

"Ohay-.. E-eh?!" Nanoha stopped her greeting short as she walked into the kitchen and was greeted by a humorous scene of the blue hedgehog and talking ferret from last night in the middle of another argument. A glance toward the kitchen and dining table also alerted her to not only her family wide awake and observing the argument; but, in addition, there were two surprise visitors.

"Alisa-chan?! Suzuka-chan?!" Nanoha called to her friends as she joined them and her family in observing the quarrelling duo.

"Ohayo, Nanoha-chan!" Alisa grinned and, deciding to tease her friend a bit, "Aren't you impatient, taking the ferret home early?"

"We didn't know it could talk either" Suzuka added, though she did so honestly and not in a teasing fashion.

"What are you doing here?" Nanoha asked, quite confused as to why the two would come to her house so early in the morning

"Well… Alisa-chan called me last night after you texted us about the ferret we found" Suzuka explained briefly, "She said that she thought there were a lot of weird things that happened after school."

"And I wanted to make sure you were alright" Alisa added, "Plus, we heard that something happened at the vet we went to yesterday; the reports said it was a car crash or something, "

"I think I'm okay.." Nanoha shook her head with a sigh, and then noticed that the hedgehog and ferret were still arguing, "How long have they been doing this?"

"About an hour" Momoko answered, "They were arguing over some trivial matters until Alisa-chan and Suzuka-chan arrived, then they were arguing over how much we should be told of something. I lost track from there. Now it's something about music."

"I like the blue one," Alisa grinned, "Sonic; he's cute and funny."

'_I'm not surprised. They're both sassy'_ Nanoha thought to herself as an anime-style sweatdrop appeared on her forehead in exasperation. She then asked a valid and logical question, "Aren't you surprised that they can talk in the first place?"

"We were at first" Suzuka answered, "But we got over that after their arguments got comical."

"I'm being honest here. We really need some victory jingle or something to play when we do another of those sealing things." Sonic argued with the ferret

"No we don't! This is a serious matter!" the ferret argued back, "And half of the time you were fighting the thing, you were trying to come up with a joke?"

"Hey! Expository banter is a must in a boss fight" The blue hedgehog stated in such a know-it-all fashion. He stopped when he noticed the ferret sigh and fall silent.

**[BGM: "Prelude" Final Fantasy (the crystal themes.. pick a game for this one, most are the same)]**

"I shouldn't be arguing with you, not after what you went through. I'm sorry that you had to get involved." The ferret hung his head low, unwilling to continue the argument and remembering what happened before the fight, "You might still be living on your own power otherwise."

"Ugh… not this again… that was the first thing you said to me when we woke up this morning. You called for help and we answered" Sonic said in reference to him and Nanoha, "When someone calls for help, I don't look the other way. It's just not my thing."

"Even so…" the ferret let out another sigh.

"Sonic's right!" Nanoha interrupted the two, "When you called, we came. We chose to get involved. It would be nice if we knew what we were getting involved in."

"But.." the ferret was about to point out the others in the room, Nanoha's friends and family, who were not involved; but he was shot down by a dirty look courtesy of not only the blue hedgehog, but his "master" too, "Alright… It's a long story though."

"If you're worried about the girls getting to their school on time, don't." Sonic stopped the ferret on that one, "I know where it is, and with my speed, I can get them there in seconds."

"I'm not worried about that." The ferret shook his head, then took to a mental communication, _'You're a mage now Nanoha. And you, Sonic, are her familiar. As such we can talk like this so long as Nanoha has Raising Heart with her. Try to talk with your heart.'_

'_Like this?' _The duo tested and asked as such.

'_Great!'_ the ferret had a small smile, _'You two can also communicate to each other directly as well through this method. I believe we call this "mindspeak". Most mages have the capability'_

'_Alright, but don't think this lets you escape from fessing up to everyone here'_ Sonic gave the ferret a cold look, _'We're not leaving until you explain.'_

"Alright" the ferret sighed again in defeat, he'd much rather only have to tell the affected duo, but the situation did not allow for that, "Well…I suppose I should start with who I am and what I do. My name is Yuuno Scrya; Scrya's my family name, and Yuuno's my given name. I'm from another world."

"Why did you come here?" Shiro asked, somewhat the most unfazed by the "alien" ferret.

"To find these relics called "Jewel Seeds". Originally, they were thought to be magic stones that could grant wishes" Yuuno began explaining about his purpose, "But…"

"Sometimes they go berserk?" Sonic finished the thought. Having a few of his own that he accidentally shared with Nanoha via mindspeak, _"Almost like the Chaos Emeralds."_

'_Eh? Chaos Emeralds?' _Nanoha suddenly blinked, drawing a look or two from everyone other than the blue hedgehog, "U-uh.. nothing…'

"Hai, and they'll sometimes take monstrous forms such as this" Yuuno, oblivious to Nanoha's brief moment of surprise and in his right hand, showed a display of footage taken from the fight with the previous night's Jewel Seed monster, including Sonic's defeat, much to the shock of everyone else, "They are very dangerous."

"Oh you should see the full highlight. I get better" Sonic shrugged their surprise off, "right, Yuuno the Tutorial Ferret?"

"Right.." Yuuno sighed; he just can't seem to catch a break from the hedgehog. He continued the footage feed up through Sonic and Nanoha's familiar and mage transformations, though for them both, it wasn't so much of a transform as it was a change of attire.

"_Sonic-kun?"_ Nanoha reached out to the hedgehog via mindspeak while Yuuno was busy explaining the stuff he went through with them last night.

"_What's up?"_

"_I'm sorry for intruding, but what are these Chaos Emeralds you mentioned?"_

"_You overheard that, ne?" _If he could voice it, Sonic would've sighed, _"Guess I can't keep it under wraps for too long. In South Island there are these gems known as the Chaos Emeralds; said to be relics of some past. Word is, the one who collects them all gains enormous power."_

"_How many are there?"_

"_Six… I've seen six of them on my adventure" _Sonic's face took on a pensive expression, _"I've heard rumors of a seventh, but, none of that's been confirmed."_

"_You know, you didn't have to tell me that" _Nanoha noted, _"I mean, I understand that after what Doctor Eggman did to your home, you would be mistrusting of us humans.."_

"_To tell you the truth, even I don't know why I'm telling you this…" _Sonic didn't deny Nanoha's assumption

"_Excuse me" _Yuuno suddenly interrupted the two, _"But I'm going to go over what I haven't told you two during last night's battle, and I'd appreciate if you'd pay attention."_

"It's my fault that these seeds are on this world in the first place" the ferret lowered his head as he continued, "In my home world, I'm an archaeologist. One day, I discovered something odd in an old rock formation. I sent a team down to retrieve it for safekeeping, but their ship never made it back. An accident that happened on the ship led to a big disaster. 21 of the Jewel Seeds were spread across your world because of it."

"Uh… hate to bring logic into this whole thing" Sonic interjected with his opinion, "But if the whole thing happened because of an accident, then I don't see anything that can be considered your fault."

"I was the one who found the seeds" Yuuno countered, "It's up to me to bring all of them back safely."

"Is that all?" Shiro asked, again with a calm expression; nothing seems to faze Nanoha's father too easily.

"Hai… I've explained all that I can and everything about our magic" Yuuno nodded, "I know it will be an inconvenience, but I'd like to ask for Nanoha's assistance in this. She's already gotten involved, and I'm too weak to handle this on my own."

"This isn't our decision to make, Yuuno-kun. It's up to Nanoha-chan to decide if she wants to help you or not." Momoko said, surprising Yuuno and Sonic with her moment of wisdom, "We'll support her all the way."

"But, what about her familiar?" the ferret asked, "Like I explained, he's living off the magical energy that she has…"

"From what we saw, she did that because she wanted to help him out, so we're fine with that." Shiro noted, "But, if he's going to protect her like most of these "familiars" do, then he'll need to be trained. I may be a few years out of practice, but even I can tell that his sword skills need improvement."

"Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence" Sonic deadpanned, "Sadly, it's true. I don't know the first thing about swords."

"I do" Kyouya noted and gestured to his sister Miyuki, "We train in the dojo almost every day."

"We could teach you our style." Miyuki added, "The "Godly Twin Kodachi Style"; the blades you got when Nanoha-chan made you her familiar are the same model as our own. Odd coincidence, ne?"

"Nyahaha… I've been caught" Nanoha giggled a bit, "Yuuno-kun told me to picture how I'd like my Familiar to be and I thought specifically of bodyguards like the jobs Onii-chan and Onee-chan have; that's where I got the weapon ideas from."

"I'm not surprised that you were aware of that." Kyouya said, thinking back to the last protection detail he and Miyuki went on. _'Now that I think about it, it's been awhile since I last saw her. Wonder how she's doing.'_

"Anyways, like I was saying, I think we can teach Sonic-kun the style we practice. It'll at least help him out more when he uses his swords, but, before that" Miyuki gave the blue hedgehog a stern look, "I want you to make a promise that you'll protect Nanoha-chan."

"E-eh?!" Nanoha stared at her older sister, "B-but, onee-chan, he-"

"Sure! I'll take that promise" the hedgehog cut her off from the argument, "As long as I live, I won't let her come to harm"

"Sonic-kun?!" Nanoha turned her surprised gaze on the hedgehog, and quickly took to the mindspeak, _"Why?! You don't have to."_

"You sure about that" Kyouya asked, "I should warn you now that our training is not going to be easy, and you will get hurt along the way."

"I'm not afraid of danger, and I don't care how much I get hurt. I promise I will protect her." Sonic answered, his determination obvious in the expression he had, "I told myself coming here that not all of you humans are like Doctor Eggman, and I'd like to think that is true. I don't think I can do that on my own. After what happened last night, when Nanoha saved my life by making me her familiar, I got to thinking that she will be the one who can help me. Help me believe what I've been trying to believe about humans. Because of that, I'll protect her… with everything I got"

"Good, then you can start your training with us after you take my sister and her friends to school" Kyouya had a teasing smirk on his face as he took notice of the time, "They wouldn't want to be late, now would they?"

"E-EH!? Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka stared at the clock and panicked, "It's almost that time already?!"

"Heh heh.. no worries" the blue hedgehog smirked in confidence as he, in a display of his natural strength, grabbed Nanoha and set her in a position where she could lock her hands around his neck. He then grabbed a surprised Alisa and Suzuka by their arms.

"Hoeeee?!" The trio screamed in surprise as they watched Sonic run in place again until his feet took on the familiar figure-8 loop shape.

"All aboard the Sonic express!" Sonic grinned more as readied his Super-Peel-Out for a huge launch, "Ready…. Here we GO!"

As soon as he said "Go!" the hedgehog was off in a huge burst of acceleration. If there was any doubt that Sonic the Hedgehog had a side for showing off, it was stamped away when he showed off his trademarked speed."

"Well" Shiro said as he stood up, "I gotta get the café opened up"

"And we have to set up the dojo" Miyuki added as she and Kyouya stood up and also left the room. The only ones left in were Yuuno and Momoko.

"Eh?" the ferret blinked, then paled when he looked up and saw the dangerous glint in Momoko Takamachi's eyes. The downside to his ferret form; Yuuno gulped a bit in comical fear, "Uh oh.."

* * *

**[Elsewhere]**

A bright and brief glimmer of light shined from the top steps of a local shrine in Uminari City. Nothing happened though after the light died down, so it was easy to push it aside. However, it was anything but forgettable.

A diamond cut jewel had made a hole for itself in the trees nearby and seemed to wait, as if looking for something to possess and give it power. The seed wasn't active yet, but it was only a matter of time before someone, maybe an unsuspecting teenager out taking her dog for a walk, to come along and give the seed a solid form to possess.

**[To be continued]**

**[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step~" Yukari Tamura]**

* * *

**[End of Chapter 2]**

Author's notes: Taking a bit of a different route as far as the Nanoha series is concerned. The reasons I have it so Nanoha's friends and Family are not left out of the loop with the magic is concerned is because it would be tough for her to keep something this big and lie about it to them. Thus, I decided to enforce the issue… Plus, Sonic will definitely need all the training he can get. And as for the reactions from Nanoha's family; consider that they are very open-minded and understanding. Believe me, even I was surprised at how much this was true.

By the way, on one of the time stamps during the jewel seed monster fight, I put an asterisk by the specific time. I did that because technically the time around the area was warped. It's a nifty spell Yuuno has that can set up a barrier within a designated area, time within that area is somewhat warped, and its done so innocent people don't get caught in a crossfire. But, as noted, and pointed out by Alisa, any damage done to the ground or walls within that area would still be present. Nobody said a mage's job wasn't destructive.

Anyways, please leave a review, I'd like to see on where I can improve, and overall opinions really help too. Until then, I'm gone.


	3. Chapter 3

SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in the third chapter to Sonic: Lyrical Familiar. Well, so far I've been liking how this story's started; got some good action, serious parts, and who can forget Sonic's wit? Well anyways, in case anyone hasn't noticed, this story's going to cover the Nanoha arc from the beginning.. So if there's a lack of familiarity from the Sonic fanbase; it's kinda by design and so far, Sonic's the only one present. Eggman's been referenced, but that hasn't appeared.. and yes; this is the young/classic Sonic (specifically CD) in the series, but I still use Eggman; NOT Robotnik! And don't be trying to correct me with something like "oh this is classic Sonic so it should be Robotnik or Robuttnik". Wrong! That's the Fleetway/Americanized continuity. I am NOT following that version. In the Japanese version he's always been Eggman. I'm choosing to follow that version; also in which there's no mention of a specific home world, so it can be speculated that the worlds in the crossover are the same; none of that "Mobius" stuff. To make it clear again, this is young Sonic, but from the Japanese continuity. That closes my rant, now back to the story. Any canon characters belong to their respective companies and not to me. Everyone probably knows that by now, but my legal team of vampires and their robotic maids tell me I have to say it anyways. Here we go!

* * *

**[Uminari City, Japan]  
[Seishou Elementary School]  
[Time: 8:15 am]  
[BGM: "Luca" Final Fantasy X]**

True to Sonic's word, the blue hedgehog got the trio of Nanoha, Suzuka and Alisa to their elementary school safely; and with some time to spare too. While it can't be said that the three elementary third graders didn't take their first time riding at speeds near Mach one too well; at least none of them got sick. They did have to stand for a moment to fight off a spell of dizziness from the whole trip from the initial acceleration to the final stop.

"Sugoi, Sonic-kun..." Nanoha breathed out in awe, while she had seen a decent sample of her familiar's speed last night, to experience it in person was another thing entirely, "You really are fast."

"Of course" the young blue hedgehog smirked a bit in pride and, in an attempt of coolness, though it appeared more cute than cool, wagged his right finger, "Fastest thing in South Island"

"I have a question" Suzuka said after she was able to establish a standing equilibrium with the ground, "How'd you know where the school was?"

"It was actually the first place I found when I got here" Sonic shrugged, "Wasn't easy, this city's big, and I think I got here at around the lunch period"

"And how could you tell?" Alisa sent a bit of a suspicious look at the hedgehog, who almost jumped in surprise and nerves, "Hmmm?"

"Well... um..." Sonic nervously pat the back of his head, "I could um... see kids eating lunch on the rooftop..."

"And you saw us too" Alisa added with a bit of a knowing smirk that further got to Sonic's nerves, "Ne?"

"M-maybe..." the hedgehog's nervous expression was becoming more obvious, _'She d-didn't see me, did she?!'_

"You did see us… and you followed us after school too." The dirty-blonde girl had a victorious expression on her face as she continued to stare down the hedgehog, who was a bit shorter than her in comparison, "And don't try to deny it, I saw you through the bushes on that shortcut we took to Cram School."

"B-busted…" the young blue hedgehog realized he was caught. The cracks of the ground must have looked awfully interesting to study, because that's where Sonic stared in attempt to avoid their gazes, "You got me… I was following you three yesterday."

"Why?" Nanoha asked in concern when she noticed the hedgehog look glum. Her concern was turned to surprise when she saw a small, gloved finger point directly at her, "M-me?!"

"Nanoha-chan?" even Alisa was shocked, and even more so when she saw the boy hedgehog nod his head softly. Though she was quick to recover from her shock and ask her next question, "It's not a crush, is it?"

"N-no! Nothing like that!" Sonic vigorously shook his head in denial and shot down that theory, and tried his best to explain why, "I d-don't know how to explain this, but when I saw her yesterday, I suddenly felt some tug-thing in the back of my head. A-and I wanted to follow her until I figured out what that feeling was. I was hoping I wouldn't get caught."

"Well you got caught" Alisa scolded him, "That kind of stuff gets you in trouble."

"Sumimasen" the blue hedgehog, in a rare show of regret, apologized to Nanoha, understandably thinking he might have offended her, and hoping she'd forgive him.

"Iie, it's alright. I wasn't hurt or anything." Nanoha shook her head and calmly placed her hand on his shoulder. Oddly enough, it seemed like the only one who was surprised by her action was Sonic, himself.

"Uh…Thanks" Sonic awkwardly "scratched" his head quills with his gloves, "Nanoha-san"

"Good, but if we're going to be friends, drop the "-san" and just call me Nanoha." Nanoha corrected her not-quite-friend-but-getting-close, "Do you still feel that "tug" you mentioned now?"

"Yeah, it's a lot stronger too, though that's probably because of the familiar thing" Sonic shrugged and turned to take his leave, "Well I think I'll go rescue the Tutorial Ferret from your mom. See if he can tell me more about this whole "magic" thing."

"You can probably get some training in too" Nanoha added, "Onee-chan's not the best cook in the café, so whenever she isn't reading, she's in the dojo."

"Ja ne!" The hedgehog once again got into his Super-peel-out and used it to launch off into a burst of speed in the direction he came.

"Ja ne!" Nanoha called out and back after him. Only a few seconds passed though before she suddenly realized something, "ACK!"

"What?" Alisa asked, curiosity taking her over.

"E-eh... it's just something I forgot to warn him about" Nanoha, in embarrassment, rubbed the back of her head, "Onee-chan's almost as bad as okaa-san with cute things… Yuuno-kun might be in trouble."

* * *

**[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar  
Chapter 3  
Link and Adjustment**

* * *

**[Midori-ya café]  
[Dojo]  
[No BGM]**

Somehow, Sonic had managed to rescue Yuuno from the clutches of Momoko Takamachi, though he learned a lesson from doing so: Don't separate Nanoha's mother from cute things unless you had a good reason. Luckily, training and the fact that Momoko had to cook for her café took more precedence, if only a little, over her fondness for cute things. Despite that, the blue hedgehog had a sinking feeling that he would be the next one under the crosshairs if he wasn't careful.

For Yuuno, it was one hassle after another, and he wasn't sure if it could get any worse; not only was he forced to reveal some secrets about his world's magic, but in front of civilians of a world in which a low cover was required. The easy way to settle his mind would have been to just blame everything on the blue hedgehog, with which he has been in something of a perpetual argument with since they met, but he couldn't do that; it was his own responsibility since day one.

'_If I didn't get him involved, Sonic would be living on his own and not as Nanoha-san's familiar. And I can't blame Nanoha's family and friends for knowing… I had to tell them because they would've been concerned for her safety otherwise. I'm just glad I didn't have to tell them about…' _Yuuno Scrya was pulled from his thoughts by a few taps of a gloved finger. Poor ferret was jolted alert, "Uwah!"

"We're here," Sonic said as he gestured to the center part of the dojo that they had arrived to. The hedgehog also noted Miyuki Takamachi, the older sister of Nanoha, who was reading a book until the two had arrived, "And unless you want to share your thoughts with the rest of the class, I'd like to get my training started."

"H-hai, I think we can start with your physical training. Because familiars, at least in theory, have access to all the spells their mages can use; we don't have to focus on that aspect yet." Yuuno nodded and let out a brief sigh of relief, _'Yeah, I don't think I'll need to inform anyone about "Them" yet, they haven't gotten involved here and I'm probably going to be in enough trouble with them already because I nearly broke cover about magic.'_

"What about Nanoha-chan?" Miyuki asked, while she understood how important Sonic's status as her sister's familiar was, she also hoped that Nanoha wouldn't be too unprepared to deal with the threat, "Will you handle the magic teaching with her?"

"A-actually... there was a reason Raising Heart, her device, only allowed me to be a "guest" user to her. I'm not that good at combat magic." the Tutorial Ferret hung his head low, "I can teach her some of the basic middle and long range shooting spells, but so can Raising Heart."

"Eh?" Both Sonic and Miyuki stared at the ferret; they apparently either missed something, or Yuuno's explanation might have been a bit too technical, "Come again?"

"Oh right, I forgot to explain how our magic works. There are a lot of factors in our spells including power input, type and range. Raising Heart's going to be going over this with her master too. No doubt she's already teaching Nanoha the basics I'm going to go over with you right now via image training." The ferret explained a bit further, hoping he was understood, "There is a method that mages can use to communicate between one another; that same method can be used between a mage and their device and their familiar as well; most mages call it "Mindspeak". Raising Heart's probably using that method to run training programs with Nanoha in her mind with image training"

"Hee hee hee..." Sonic suddenly giggled a bit in youthful amusement; he quickly explained when he caught the two staring at him, "I think Nanoha just found out that her device thing can do that. Because of that mindspeak thing the ferret's talking about, Nanoha might be accidentally broadcasting me some things; and judging by the squeals I'm hearing right now, I think she just went through her first program. Ouch, yup! If that was the real thing, she'd probably be feeling that in the morning."

"Right…" Yuuno had an anime-style sweat drop fall from his head in exasperation while Nanoha's older sibling giggled a bit herself. The ferret shook it off and went back to Tutorial mode, "Anyways, for our magic; there are many factors that are calculated in our spells. The Mana is the main source of a spell's power, and it comes from a false organ we call the "Linker Core"; mages, and the familiars they create, rely on their Linker Cores for magic power. The familiar also relies on their mages Linker Core for life as well."

"Like a battery?" Sonic asked, drawing the comparison

"That's one way to sum it up" the ferret nodded, "Next factor is the spell's type; it is determined by what the spell does when it's used. Types are a further classification of a spell's category. For example: spells under the "Attack" category have types that include but aren't limited to: shooting, bombardment and melee. Other categories include Defense, Capture, Support and Force Field, each has their own types."

"So, say, and I'm probably going to feel stupid for trying this connection" the blue hedgehog attempted to draw another comparison, "In RPG video games, some magic was used to heal, boost up stats or lower them, is that kind of true here?"

"Sort of, some mages are taught healing spells and they can be useful in a combat situation, but it depends on what the mage wants their spell to do." Yuuno nodded again in confirmation, "Lastly, the "Range" is the distance for in which spells are effective. The closest distance is between a mage and their target is called "Cross Range" (Kurozu Renji in Japanese), this is the best range for close combat; after that there's "Middle Range" (Midoru Renji), "Long Range" (Rongu Renji)."

"I assume each range has its own perks?" Miyuki asked, slowly understanding the concepts, "Like some of your spells have more effect when you're closer or farther from your foe?"

"Yup; the middle range is for high-speed (and aerial) shooting spells while long range focuses more on bombardments and wide-area spells. Raising Heart will focus on the middle and long range spells with Nanoha-san. That said, as her familiar, you'd best focus on the cross range. Most familiars should be able to cover for the weak points for their mages…" the ferret hung his head low and let out a long sigh; he certainly talked a lot, and it wore him down. His weak state didn't help much either, so, hopefully he made his explanation clear, "Understand?"

"Got it" Sonic nodded as he and Miyuki were able to understand the majority, "Alot of focus on combat, though."

"Maybe so, but that's kind of how it goes. Anyways, close combat…" Yuuno shrugged a bit; he then quickly changed the topic, he went through enough with them for one day and the more time he spent explaining left less time for training and preparations for the next inevitable Jewel Seed to reveal itself. The ferret awkwardly gazed up at Miyuki Takamachi, "Um…"

**[BGM: "Paradigm Shift" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]**

"I guess it's my turn then" Miyuki stood up and removed her glasses; she was already dressed in the appropriate robes for the dojo anyway. She took out four wooden training swords from a nearby rack and tossed two of them to Sonic, "Here! Take these and hold them like you were holding your own last night. We're going to first work on your stance. A solid stance is the first thing you should focus on in a fight because it sets your foundation."

"Right!" Sonic caught the wooden swords and held them in each hand with their respective normal and reverse grips, much like last night. He then bent his knees a little bit and tried to settle into a stance, though he noticeably looked a bit rigid and fidgety, "Like this?"

"It's not bad for a start, but, you still need work" Miyuki calmly walked close to the hedgehog and knelt down so she was at a good level to work with him, "You want to be comfortable in your stance, otherwise it's no good. Here…"

Yuuno watched as the girl worked with the hedgehog's stance and adjusted it so he could have a comfortable slight bend of his knees and his hands were adjusted so that they were a fair distance from one another and the two blades wouldn't get crossed and interfere. The ferret couldn't help but notice that the hedgehog, despite his attempts to hide it, didn't appear to be very comfortable being so close to the human. Despite that, however, if the discomfort interfered with the lessons Miyuki was teaching, neither she nor Sonic were showing it.

'_I don't think I've seen someone so reserved around humans, but at least he's giving this one a chance.'_ Yuuno thought to himself in observation, _'He said earlier that he didn't have a good impression about humans and he was hoping Nanoha would help it improve. I know that something happened to his home and a human is involved, but what happened? If whatever happened can be considered criminal, what am I supposed to do when I find out?'_

'_Okay, she's helping me… and she doesn't expect much in return for her help'_ Sonic thought as Miyuki went through the different stances suited for offensive and defending actions. It was a slow start, but he was starting to accept the human's help, _'She only wants me to protect her sister, and I think that's fair.'_

"There we go" Miyuki gave the hedgehog an encouraging and mature smile, "Aren't you learning fast?"

"Well I'm not just fast on my feet" the blue hedgehog grinned in his slowly-building confidence, "What's next? I'm ready for anything"

"Come at me" Miyuki settled herself into a defensive stance with the wooden swords she had, "Watch what I do to block and counter your attacks; don't worry about getting hurt either, I'm not going to be hitting you hard enough."

The hedgehog was reluctant at first, but he eventually rushed in and tried to engage Miyuki with the wooden swords. Much as expected, he awkwardly missed most of his strikes and was countered at every angle, and though Miyuki held back, she still finished her counters and pointed out the weak points that she noticed in the hedgehog's form. Many times throughout the session, Sonic would either attack or defend, and Miyuki would usually knock him to the floor while pointing out a specific weak point that she, and others after her, would be able to capitalize on and show him how to correct it.

The training continued throughout the first part of the day with breaks permitted and soon the first training session had come to a close. To summarize all that happened, Miyuki had covered most of the basics with Sonic, but she, respecting his inexperience, only covered the basics until he could adjust to using two swords. The hedgehog's ability to be a quick study added to Miyuki's calm and patient personality helped to make the first session a solid success. But they both knew that Sonic still had a long way to go.

* * *

**[Seishou Elementary School]  
[No BGM]**

Much like Sonic had a few failures to start his training, Nanoha also had gotten off to a less than stellar start with Raising Heart and the image training, but she managed to adjust quickly like her familiar did. Her device's explanation of the magic basics was clear, to the point, and easy to understand, allowing Nanoha to just absorb it all. The only issue that came up was the initial adjustment to multi-tasking between taking notes of her elementary school classes and the basic magic lessons.

She accomplished a few things from her first magic lesson in the image training before school was over. She and her device agreed on a schedule of when lessons would be less of an inconvenience. While she can multi-task between the lectures of her device and schoolteacher, when a test came around, all of her attention must be focused on it, so it would have to hold. In addition, during her cram school, she wouldn't be as available either because of the content she was learning.

That also extended to her assistance with the Jewel Seeds. It would be impossible for her to help out during regular school and cram school, but after that, she would be free. That information also helped Yuuno on the front with training Nanoha's familiar. Because Sonic needed just as much training, he'd be able to get the most training while Nanoha was in her regular school and cram school. Other than that, he'd be free to help Nanoha in their Jewel Seed hunt.

The sound of the bell signified the end of the school day. Nanoha, feeling satisfied for the success she got out of the day with her multi-tasking taking notes in her regular school and her image training with Raising Heart, stood up from her chair and stretched with a cute yawn. Though, in doing so, she also had left herself wide open for a little surprise, and Alisa Bannings was not one to let the opportunity fall by the wayside.

Alisa, in a mischievous manner, pulled on one of Nanoha's long pigtails and was granted by the cute and comical sight of Nanoha flailing her arms and whining in surprise. All Suzuka could do was watch and giggle softly, not that she had much intention of interfering, she, like Alisa, did enjoy having fun and messing with their best friend. As a bonus, when Alisa finally released the tail of hair, Nanoha glanced at the two with an expression that was a cute, little mix between pouty and exasperation.

* * *

**[Route from the school]  
[No BGM]**

A nice round of tea and sweets following a long day of school was what the trio of elementary third graders agreed to, on multiple reasons. For Nanoha, it would let her check on Sonic and Yuuno to see how the training went on their side, plus make sure they left her house in one piece while she was out. As for Alisa and Suzuka, while they both had mansions they lived in and Suzuka's family had maids that she respected, there was something about the Midori-ya café that had an appeal of its own; the appeal may have been helped by its two new residents.

"You think Sonic-kun and Yuuno-kun would like if we brought them some sweets?" Nanoha asked, "It might help them both and save okaa-san the time to make them herself so she can work the café more."

"That sounds good" Alisa agreed as they passed a small store with a window that had a boutique of fancy jewelry and an elegant dress on display. Nanoha couldn't help but sneak a glance at the display.

"I think we may be a little bit too young to be wearing that, Nanoha-chan" Suzuka softly teased, "and they look expensive too."

"Mou…" Nanoha pouted a bit and stepped back to join her friends. However, as she walked she suddenly had to stop in her step as a sudden jolt got to her and time seemed to stop for a moment or two "Ah?"

**[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X]**

"Nanoha-chan?!" Alisa, the first to notice her friend's stop in movement, asked in concern, "What's up?"

"I just felt something" Nanoha looked up and around for a bit as if to determine what that feeling was; she had also reached out to the ferret and hedgehog, _"Yuuno-kun?! Sonic-kun?! Did you both feel that too?"_

"_Yeah, I felt something. It was like a sudden feeling that something's going on." _Sonic answered back via the mindspeak, _"And so did our Tutorial Ferret."_

"_Another Jewel Seed has activated"_ Yuuno confirmed, and as much as he'd like to deny it, the well-deserved, albeit a joke of a title was starting to grow on him, _"It's close by too! Head towards the source, we'll meet you there!"_

"_Hai!"_ Nanoha nodded and blinked a bit to recollect her surroundings. To her surprise, Alisa and Suzuka didn't turn tail and run, instead they gave her a questioning look. The question unneeded to be asked was answered, "Yuuno-kun said a Seed was activated, and it's close by. I'm going to take care of it."

"You're not going alone" Alisa stopped short of jumping in front of her best friend's path, "We're coming with you!"

"It could be dangerous" Nanoha cautioned them, though she knew full well that she couldn't physically stop them from tagging along. She started to run toward the source of the feeling she found.

"Nanoha-chan, that's even more reason for us to come" Suzuka countered with a valid point, as she was easily able to keep up with her friend, "We're your friends, and if you get hurt doing this, then we couldn't forgive ourselves for not being there to help"

"You could get hurt too…" Nanoha made her last argument, but again didn't break stride as she got closer, "Are you okay with that?"

"We'll do our best to stay out of the way" Alisa grinned a bit, completely honest, "Plus I'm kind of excited to see what you can do for real."

"Mou...you two are stubborn" Nanoha sighed, fell silent and continued to run.

* * *

**[Temple Steps]  
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X OST]**

It took them five minutes to arrive at their destination, but when they did. The trio was greeted by Sonic and Yuuno; both of them, for once, had agreed on something. They were both disappointed in the girls, though for different reasons, and Sonic's was more comical while Yuuno's was more serious.

"You're late!" Sonic pouted a bit with his hands on his hips and his foot tapping in comical impatience, "I could've zoomed over to the coffee shop and pick up a cup before you girlies got here."

"Well sorry for not having the great gift of super speed" Alisa snarked in retort and, in a fashion that made the obvious size difference between the two known, looked down at the blue hedgehog, "Like most people, we're not as fast as you, so we had to run at normal speed."

"Touché" The blue hedgehog shrugged with no effort to argue, "But something's got the Tutorial Ferret's panties in a knot."

"W-wha?! I don't wea- ugh! Why am I arguing with you again?!" Yuuno sighed in exasperation, once again unable to take a joke from the blue hedgehog. He focused his attention on Nanoha and gave her a rather disappointing look, one that easily predicted his upcoming lecture, "Why did you bring your friends here? We're here to seal a Jewel Seed, not go on a picnic."

"Sorry, Yuuno-kun" Nanoha looked down, "They wanted to come"

"Ha… fine, but they are your resp- Gack!" Yuuno's lecture was cut short by a gloved hand grabbing him by the fur, "What the?! Hey?!"

"I think Nanoha's friends are well aware of the dangers, thank you very much Tutorial Ferret-kun. Now let's get going, I'll even give you a head start" Sonic softly threw the ferret up a few steps and that gave him the message to move on. The blue hedgehog followed suit, though slow enough for the other girls to keep up. Oddly enough, he was surprised to see Suzuka, despite her appearance, had a sizeable lead on her friends up the stairs; though he also refrained to comment on it and just passed it off as a better start.

After the long stairway climb, the group was greeted to the sight of a familiar pink-haired jogger on the wrong end of a glare by a very vicious, demonic looking dog with two extra eyes above where the normal ones should've been at, razor sharp teeth with multiple fangs on both sides of its jaw; and it also sported a tall and intimidating build.

The teen looked scared out of her mind and tried to step back while seated flat on her butt. All it took was one small step forward from the dog and the girl lost consciousness in pure fright. The sudden familiarity of the girl was noted by Alisa Bannings first.

"Oy! That girl! She's the same one we saw yesterday" the dirty-blonde Anglophone pointed to the girl and her dog in recognition, "That means the dog is the same one that was yapping at me yesterday too."

"H-how did it get so big?!" Suzuka asked in surprise and probably some fear

"A lot of kibble?" The hedgehog offered a brilliantly-timed quip

"It's been possessed by a Jewel Seed" Yuuno quickly explained

"That too" Sonic added calmly

"And even more bad news, it's a lot tougher when whatever the seed possesses has a stable form." The ferret pointed out as well, almost as calm, his experience paying a factor in the calmness.

As if it smelt new prey, the seed-possessed-dog focused its attention on the group of new arrivals. However, once its glance caught the sight of Alisa Bannings, it growled out loudly and started to approach her.

"I think he knows you" Sonic frowned as he moved into a defensive position, but didn't call his Barrier Jacket or weapons yet.

"Nanoha! Use Raising Heart" Yuuno quickly and sternly instructed the new mage, "Recite the password to use her!"

"E-EH?! The password?!" Nanoha blinked, "B-but it's too long, and I can't remember it..."

"You'll be fine, just rep…" Yuuno was again about to say something, but for the umpteenth time, he was interrupted by a gloved hand over his little ferret mouth, "Mmmph!"

"Yeah, I don't think Fido over there's going to give us time to recite a soliloquy" Sonic quipped as he noted the dog getting closer to Alisa, almost within the range of a pounce, "Nanoha, if that device is as intelligent as the Tutorial Ferret says, I think you might be able to get away with just asking it nicely."

"I'll give that a try!" the girl nodded and held Raising Heart in her left hand. Just before the dog could pounce on her friend, she quickly stepped in front of her, "Raising Heart, Onegai!"

"_**Alright, Standby ready!"**_ The device chimed and under the cover of a well-timed barrier, it changed Nanoha's school uniform to her Barrier Jacket and also shifted to Device form.

* * *

**[Vs Jewel Seed: Dog possession]  
[BGM: "Crimson Blitz/Blinded by Light" Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII OST]**

"Whoa…" Alisa let out a breath that she didn't even know she had held, "Thanks Nanoha"

"And now it's my turn!" Sonic grinned, quickly shifted to his own Barrier Jacket and wielded the twin kodachi blades that came with the jacket. It wasn't hard for him to do so as he remembered the feeling he had when he became Nanoha's familiar and how the jacket and weapons just appeared on him during the time. As a sample of his fleet feet, he quickly forced the demonic dog away from the magic barrier with a simultaneous strike from both blades.

'_She changed without having to recite Raising Heart's password… She didn't even take damage from absorbing its attack head on either… She has a lot of potential in her'_ Yuuno stared at the girl in awe. His awe was replaced by confusion when he noticed that instead of focusing on the new mage and familiar, the Jewel Seed beast still had its sight locked onto Alisa, "Ano... why is it still after your friend?"

"I kind of shut it up yesterday when it was just a small little guy" Alisa admitted in some guilt, "And I think it wants payback."

"Well I'm about to send it to the pound" the blue hedgehog smirked and shouted out to the mutt, "Bad dog! No biscuits for you!"

On another roar from the possessed dog, Sonic primed his blades up and rushed in to engage the dog. He struck hard and fast with the twin swords in a four-slash combo with two slashes for each blade. His combo ended with a solid upward kick that sent the dog up into the air, he chained it with a downward kick that grounded the mutt. Though, for all his work, the dog wasn't nearly as strong as it looked and it went down barely within a minute.

"Awe... down already" the blue hedgehog bent his wrists against his hips in a sort of impatient/waiting gesture while his foot tapped, "I was expecting more..."

'_It only went down so fast because he never let up from his attack, such speed and strength'_ Yuuno mentally observed, almost as amazed of Nanoha's familiar as he was of the new mage herself, _'I can see why they are both of the proper nature. They have so much potential.'_

"All I have to do is seal it" Nanoha noted in observation, "Right?"

"H-hai!" Yuuno nodded after Nanoha's voice woke him from his amazed stupor

"_**Canon Mode!"**_ As if reading its master's mind, Raising Heart shifted its form. The near-circle that encased the large gem representing the device was replaced by a square shaped holder with two prongs holding the orb-like gem inside; in addition, the neck of the staff also gained a trigger grip.

Much like the night before, streams of pinkish mana surrounded the dog and held it in a bind. Upon the beast's forehead appeared the Roman numerals "XVI". Sonic, to make sure the mutt wouldn't be going anywhere, kept a close eye on it. In doing so, he also noted the Roman numerals and translated them, though he probably didn't need to do such as the girls plus ferret could all understand it easily.

"XVI… that would be number 16" Sonic noted and shouted back to Nanoha, "Seal it up!"

"Lyrical Magical! Jewel Seed Serial 16" Nanoha recited the seal incantation, twirled her staff a bit, probably for show, and pointed it right at the dog, "Seal!"

"_**Sealing!"**_ the device declared and the streams tightened their grip on the beast until it disappeared into a bright flash of light that had Sonic, Yuuno and the girls covering their eyes from the brightness. In seconds the monster was gone, replaced by the Jewel Seed that had possessed it. Now inactive, it was easily able to be stored within a device; Raising Heart automatically did such.

"_**Receipt number 16"**_ The intelligent device chimed out.

* * *

**[Boss Cleared]  
[Jingle: "Act Clear" Sonic CD (US)]**

Much to Yuuno's chagrin, he had to watch as Sonic celebrated the victorious seed seal with a cool pose that was the same as last night's but because he was still in his Barrier Jacket, he adjusted by sheathing his kodachi away in the sheathes that were positioned on his back in a manner where the straps don't get cut or interfere with the spines on his back.

Nanoha, feeling a bit inspired by her familiar, tried her own hand at the post-battle-victory pose, she cutely twirled her staff around in her left hand and put it to the ground in a vertical position, still held in her left hand. She also had a cute wink and a smile, "Nipaaa~!"

"Ugh!" Alisa suddenly had to grasp her nose and turn away from the pose; though her reasons for doing so were unknown to Sonic, Yuuno and Nanoha, they weren't unknown to Suzuka.

"Alisa-chan!" the mentioned girl with purple hair helped out her friend. Within almost a minute, whatever she did must've worked because Alisa looked much better, albeit maybe a bit tired for some reason.

"Well… uhm…" Yuuno awkwardly tried to put an end to the fun for the moment, "That's another seed sealed"

"Buzzkill" Sonic sighed again and once again, "Okay, Tutorial Ferret, how many are left?"

"There's 21 of them in total, so, doing the math we're left with 19 unaccounted" Yuuno quickly replied after a calculation or two; his reply came with a small glare in the hedgehog's direction, "Now you're calling me that just to annoy me, right?"

"Nah, you really are giving us a tutorial" the blue hedgehog, not missing a beat, shrugged in response.

* * *

**[Late Afternoon]  
[BGM: "Besaid Island" Final Fantasy X OST]**

Less than an hour had passed and the sun was about to set. The small group of girls plus hedgehog and ferret had decided to stick around the area to make sure that the jogger was okay after she passed out, though they watched her from a discrete spot in the area. Sure enough the jogger teen woke up, though she was a bit disoriented.

"Huh?" The girl with pink hair said as she woke up and looked around, "I wonder if I tripped and hit my head…"

The girl looked around in search of her faithful little dog. In a matter of seconds, her dog ran up to her, its lack of a leash apparent. The dog just sat in front of her, letting out a few friendly barks. With a small shrug as if nothing happened that she should be worried about, the girl picked up her dog and walked down the steps and off towards their home in the city.

The group of kids, to reflect on their eventful long day, had a nice, peaceful chat on the top step of the stairs, just underneath the red arch. Sonic and Nanoha both were out of their respective Barrier Jackets by that point as well, since there was no need for them at the time.

"So is it safe to say that we did a good job today?" Nanoha asked Yuuno innocently

"Yeah I guess, considering all that has happened" the ferret nodded in agreement, "A few more people know about out magic than I would've liked, but, at least they were the ones you could trust."

"I won't tell anyone" Alisa assured him with an honest tone.

"Me neither" Suzuka nodded in agreement

"Please… The less people who know about this, the better" Yuuno requested, "I've already put everyone in danger here by getting you involved. One of you almost got killed last night too."

"Again with the guilt…" the small blue hedgehog shrugged, "Don't worry about it. I made the choice to get involved."

"So ends our first…" Nanoha said aloud in thought, as if to change the topic and get Yuuno from his little guilt phase, "My first day as a mage, and Sonic-kun's first day as my familiar. I think it turned out great, don't you all agree?"

"Yeah" the blue hedgehog gave the girl a thumb-up gesture, "I actually had some fun with that last seed monster thing."

"You looked better with your swords in this fight too" Yuuno complimented in observation, "Are you starting to get used to this? Being a familiar and the magic"

"Yeah; I mean it is different, suddenly living off someone's magic/energy thing" the blue hedgehog shrugged, "But I'm a fast study, so I think I can get used to all of this real quick. How are you feeling about all of this, Nanoha?"

"I'm kind of happy; I got to make new friends with Sonic-kun and Yuuno-kun" the girl replied, explaining her feelings slightly. She was the first to stand up after a brief silent moment had passed, "Well, a lot sure has happened."

All of a sudden, to the embarrassment of everyone except Alisa Bannings, a collective grow from their stomachs was heard. The blushes that adorned their faces added to a cute moment that had been made.

"Looks like we sure all hungry from all of that" Alisa cheekily grinned, "Who's up for snacks at Nanoha-chan's house?"

"E-eh?! Why me?" Nanoha cutely argued back, "You both have houses of your own to go home to."

"That is true" Suzuka nodded, not disagreeing with Alisa, "But I think yours will be more entertaining, and my onee-chan also works at your family's café so I can always go home with her."

"Um, what about Sonic?" Yuuno curiously brought up a point of his own, "Wouldn't his presence at the Nanoha's café raise questions with the customers and staff?"

"Not really" Alisa shrugged, "It's not like Sonic-kun's from another world."

"If anything, they might be relieved that someone from where he's from was willing to come here, considering…" Nanoha added but left the statement hanging for her friends plus hedgehog to draw their conclusion. She also sent a reassuring smile at the mentioned hedgehog, _'But, considering our usual type of customers; they might try to take him home with them. I hope I don't grow up to be like those teenage girls.'_

"If it helps, we'll let Sonic be the one to decide where we go" Suzuka offered and drew attention to the hedgehog, "What do you think?"

"Well…." Sonic had a lot to think about, and that played into his silence throughout the conversation. On one hand, Nanoha could be right and he'd be given a bit of a warm welcome to the café, but on the other hand it could go south. Eventually, he decided to go with his gut feeling of confidence, and his growing hunger, "I'm up for it, let's go"

"Okay!" The trio of girls chimed in agreement and led the way for Sonic and Yuuno to follow en route to the Midori-ya.

'_I need to find out what I am missing here'_ Yuuno thought as he followed, _'I didn't research this world enough before I came here, that's a mistake I need to fix.'_

**[Midori-ya Café]  
[No BGM]**

Within a matter of minutes, the girls plus hedgehog, along with the ferret who had opted to ride on Alisa's shoulder, had arrived at the Midori-ya café. Either by mistake or design, but they all entered from the front door, the telltale bell ringing alerted the few customers inside to the new arrivals. There was a bit of a brief silence throughout the café when everyone saw the hedgehog, but, much like what Nanoha said, they didn't pay him any ill will and instead just happily went about their business and the peaceful atmosphere was kept intact.

"See, I told you" Nanoha told Sonic as they all took a seat at the bar of the café, "Have a little more faith"

"I'll try" the hedgehog nodded reluctantly

"Suzuka-chan!" a familiar voice and figure approached the young girl called out to. The 18-year old girl who had approached was her older sister, Shinobu, dressed in the appropriate uniform for the café, "I thought you'd be home by now"

"Well we thought it would be a good idea to have tea here after school" Suzuka explained, leaving out the magic incident entirely, "But we kinda got distracted at the mall and we lost track of time."

"Ah, and this is the Midori-ya's latest tenant, at least that's what Momoko-san told me earlier" Shinobu glanced at the hedgehog. Taking into account the nervous feeling she could tell he had, she calmly addressed him with a kind and polite bow, "It's nice to meet you, Sonic-san; I'm Tsukimura Shinobu, Suzuka-chan's older sister. I work here at the café so you'll probably be seeing a lot of me while you're here. Momoko-san's probably going to put you to work here to, so if that happens, don't be afraid to come to me for advice."

"T-thank you very much." Sonic timidly, but with a small smile of growing confidence, "It's nice to meet you too."

Calmly, the girl passed out tea and sweets to everyone but the ferret companion, whom she assumed Momoko would feed later. After he watched her leave, Sonic let out a sigh of relief and was nudged by Nanoha again.

"Like I said; most humans are kind and considerate to strangers, even those like you." Nanoha explained, "So long as you don't do anything to offend them, but you're a bit careful with that too so you should be fine. Just don't try to be too careful otherwise you'll unintentionally cause more harm than good, Understand?"

"Yup!" the hedgehog nodded and took a taste of the tea. To his own surprise, it didn't taste bad and was actually a bit sweet, though he still had a lot to think about after Nanoha spoke to him, _'Nanoha's right… I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her from now on, so I need to trust her. It won't be easy, but I'll do my best!'_

'_I don't know what lies ahead for me and Sonic-kun as mage and familiar'_ Nanoha thought to herself as well as she enjoyed the time with her friends, _'But I'm going to try my best to help Yuuno-kun with the Jewel Seeds and help Sonic-kun open up to humans too.'_

**[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]  
[End of Chapter 3]**

Author's note: Well that's about a good 6.8k word count, opening rant set aside. All the solid work that I could do without the word count limit, it's amazing, and I'm liking how this one's developing. Getting a lot of content in and doing great with the details. Reviews please! I love opinions! Canon mode is the combination of Raising Heart's sealing and shooting mode, exclusive to Nanoha MOVIE the 1ST… And, about the Jewel seed possess dog first going after Alisa, I had a bit of thinking when I saw the scene in the anime, same dog as episode one and Alisa did shout at it loudly; could've taken it a bit hard. By the way, for those who were wondering how some humans can simply take Sonic's presence in stride, considering that the islands that Sonic is from is set here all on the same planet, it's most likely that they've seen some of his kind before, either in the news or something like that and just got used to it. They would've had more issue if he was causing havoc, of course, but since he isn't; who is anyone to care what he does? On another note, the Tutorial Ferret is still holding something back, what could it be that Yuuno hasn't said that he's all nervous about?


	4. Chapter 4

SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in a new chapter to Lyrical Familiar. New story, new possibilities, and I plan on getting deep into the content of this arc. Going even beyond the Nanoha movie AND the anime with the Sound Stage coverage, which this chapter specifically gets into. Anime and movie can only cover so much; the Sound Stages help that out. I may also cameo a few more characters too. Let's go!

* * *

**[Uminari City, Japan]  
[Time: 0530]  
[No BGM**

Barely a few days have passed since Nanoha and Sonic's own first day as a mage and familiar. Neither of them seemed bothered by the fact that they were dragged into helping the young archeologist, Yuuno Scrya, in his search for the Jewel Seeds. To Yuuno's greater surprise, Sonic, who, if not for Nanoha becoming a mage, would've been dead, did not hold any ill will against the ferret; and the teasing, witty and sarcastic streak the hedgehog seems to have only came with his carefree attitude. So far, they managed to seal two Jewel Seeds in as many days, and, counting the seed the ferret had already sealed prior to his coming to earth, their count was up to 3. Out of 21, that left 18 unaccounted for, but they at least made some progress.

To give Nanoha and Sonic their first taste in magic training and because there were some lessons that could only be learnt in a hands-on lesson; Yuuno had taken the two to a vacant lot close to the café. They all woke up early so, in theory, they wouldn't cause much of a ruckus and be able to sneak out of the house without the family noticing.

Sadly, the trio, not being the stealthiest of early-risers or mages, had also woken up the rest of Nanoha's family. Instead of stopping the three, they instead decided to tag along for the shared reasons of the reasonable curiosity, much to Yuuno's chagrin. The ferret, wisely so, didn't voice any reservations against the family tagging along, and he couldn't stop them anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered if he tried.

They all watched as Nanoha, clad in her Barrier Jacket, stood on the ground with a large glyph circle of magic at the center of her feet. The circle was inscribed with rings and squares; and at the corners of the rings were the Greek letters Pi, Delta, Omega and Vu. The humans couldn't help but look at the circle in awe. Nanoha would have as well, if she wasn't already focused on the target dummy Yuuno borrowed from the Takamahci family dojo.

To Nanoha's right was her familiar, also clad in his Barrier Jacket, though his swords were sheathed and his arms were folded. The Tutorial Ferret had strongly requested that the hedgehog save his wit for after training as it could be dangerous if Nanoha were to lose her focus. Much as he'd like to have fun with his mistress, Sonic obliged, the magic was kinda important to him too.

"Alright, concentrate in your mind" Yuuno instructed, not fazed by the glyphs as he was used to seeing them on a daily basis, "Make an image"

"Hmmm.." Nanoha obliged and tried to focus in her mind about an image, it didn't take her long to get one.

"Good, now take that image into your hand" The ferret continued his instruction, "And transfer it into Raising Heart"

"Okay" the girl nodded and held the staff out in her left hand, "Raising Heart, Onegai!"

"_**Alright!"**_ The red orb of her device chimed in affirmation. If Nanoha's family were surprised, only Miyuki showed it; albeit only a small reaction at that, _**"Standby, ready."**_

'_Okay… Did they just take the fact that Raising Heart talked in stride?!'_ Sonic thought to himself as he just stared at Nanoha's family.

"Now you need to gather the magical energy for that image" Yuuno finished instructing, "Recite your incantation and cast it out all at once."

"Image for the magic…" Nanoha looked awkward as she tried to focus, and then managed to recite her incantation, "Lyrical Magical! Um…. Binding Spell Activate!"

Her spell did not quite work as it sounded. Instead of the target dummy getting wrapped in a binding spell like it should have been; it was blasted in a large, uncontrolled burst of pink mana, courtesy of the mage. While the binds were present, the spell's power was just a bit overcharged and it ended up making the practice dummy target explode. At least she got the spell off, whatever it was; may the target dummy rest in peace.

"Yatta!" Nanoha cheered at that part, "Did I do it right?"

"If "doing it right" means "exploding your target and causing an avalanche of debris and dirt to head right for us", then I'd say you aced it!" Her blue hedgehog familiar quipped and gave her a thumb-up gesture for emphasis. That said, he had little choice but to watch as he and his mistress were about to crash into debris that the backfired spell made, "How the…"

"Eh?" Nanoha blinked, only to gain a comically surprised expression on her face as she noticed the small mix of debris and dirt heading right for her and him, and a little bit too fast for either of them to react to it, "KYAA!"

In a last ditch effort to spare his mistress from at least some of the debris, Sonic took her in a headfirst tackle. His effort didn't get the results he would've liked, as they both were caught up in the mess.

"Nanoha! Sonic!" Yuuno, who just so happened to be on higher ground, rushed down to check on the mage and familiar caught up in the mess. When the dust settled, the sight it revealed made him stare and blush a bit.

**[BGM: "Eeto desu ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

The two were in a rather embarrassing position; Nanoha, looking a bit dazed if the swirly signs comically replacing her eyes were of any clue, was seated flat on her butt. Sonic, a little bit more aware, was curled up in her lap.

"That could've gone better." Sonic groaned as he stood up and dusted himself off. Showing some concern for his almost-friend's wellbeing, he offered the girl his hand, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, somehow" Nanoha took it. She used the offered hand to stand up, "You too, Sonic-kun?"

"Yeah" the blue hedgehog shrugged, "That was interesting"

"Hmmm…" Nanoha agreed with a sigh; she looked down at Yuuno and lamented her mistake, "It doesn't look like I'm doing too well…"

"No, you're actually quite impressive" Yuuno admitted in complete honesty, "It's only been a few days and you're already able to do this much."

"Is that so.." the girl had her doubts and she hung her head low; a gloved hand suddenly patted the top of her head a few times, "E-eh?"

"Don't worry" Sonic chimed with a supportive tone, "You're doing great; keep up the good work!"

"I kind of understand how to use attack and protection spells now" Nanoha thought out loud with her familiar nodding in agreement.

"You both seem to be really good with the high energy spells, and possess a great amount of mana reserves when you combine them together. However, you both lack in concentration and finesse" The ferret explained.

"Umm… Does that mean we're the type that relies more on brute force?" Nanoha asked, not quite sure if she should be proud of that.

"E-eh?! Ah…" Yuuno blinked rapidly. Uhoh, quick! Backpedal! "T-that's not what I meant."

"Guilty" Sonic only needed one word to counter.

"A-anyways, you both don't need to worry about that." The ferret said in encouragement, "I can support you both with the Barrier and Capture spells, even if I am still in recovery."

"That doesn't let her off the hook. She still needs to learn them so I can use them too." Sonic noted, "You said the other day that I'll need to be able to cover for her weak points."

"That's true…" Yuuno hung his head low; much as he disliked the hedgehog's blunt statements, they still bring up solid points.

"Nanoha-chan!" Momoko called out to the group, getting their attention, "It's time for breakfast!"

"Hai!" the girl brightly chimed back. She turned to her device and called out to it, "Thanks for today, Raising Heart. We'll train again soon"

"_**Goodbye"**_ the device chimed back and shifted back to standby mode. At the same time, both Nanoha and Sonic disengaged their barrier jackets and, with Yuuno Scrya in tow, met back up with the family so they could go in for breakfast.

* * *

**[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar  
Chapter 4  
Big problem at the pool with swimsuits?!**

* * *

**[Midori-ya Café]  
[BGM: "Honobono" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

After the training was over, Nanoha and Sonic took turns in the shower before, at least more so on Nanoha's part, getting dressed and eating breakfast at the family dining table. As for Sonic, it had only been a few days since he first started living in the household, so he was considered a "guest", and given some slack about some of the minor customs. However, if the hedgehog plans on living there much longer, he would need to follow the customs and rules of the household as he would, rightfully so, not be considered a guest.

"Sonic-san" Shiro addressed the hedgehog politely. The head of the Takamachi family had a need to discuss something with his guest, but took a less in-your-face approach to it "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Uh sure.." Sonic nodded awkwardly, feeling a tad bit uncomfortable with the formal talk, but chose against voicing that opinion, "What is it?"

"We've let you stay in this house freely for a few days, mainly because of the circumstances involving you and our daughter" The man calmly and neutrally informed the boy, "However, we cannot let you stay here like this for much longer."

"Eh? Otou-san" Nanoha looked at her father in surprise, quickly drawing an assumption, "You're not going to kick him out, are you?"

"No, rest assured, he can still live here" Shiro quickly corrected her, "I'm just saying that we cannot consider him a "guest" for too much longer if he is going to be living here for a long time"

"Oh, yeah, when you put it that way" Nanoha nodded in agreement and turned to face the hedgehog familiar directly, "Um, Sonic-kun, you are going to be living here for a while, right?"

"Yeah, I'm not going to back down on my promise" the hedgehog nodded firmly; his attention shifted back to the father figure, "So, I take it that means I can't be warming up your couch every night from now on?"

"It wasn't really a healthy place to sleep in anyway" Miyuki noted as she sat down, hearing most of the conversation anyways, "But, we don't really have a guest room either"

"He'll have to room with one of us" Shiro concluded quickly, sending a knowing glance at Nanoha, "You don't mind sharing your room, do you Nanoha-chan?"

"E-eh?!" Nanoha just blinked, and gazed at Sonic, who, like her, was just as shocked as she was. She turned back to look at her father, "Um… I don't, but why?"

"In my experience with this sort of situation with you and the hedgehog, I think it's fair to say that he can be considered a guardian or a bodyguard, and in order for that partnership to work out, you both need a good relationship" Shiro noted, "For that reason, you two will need to spend more time with each other and develop that relationship."

"He's right, a good relationship between client and guard help in the long run. Clients will be more likely to enlist our services if the first job goes well and they feel like they can trust us with that relationship." Kyouya nodded in agreement, still remembering his last job.

"I'm not really looking for money or anything" Sonic argued a bit, "But, if you want me to do some of this stuff, I will. If you want me to, I'll also try to work around here and kinda "earn" my stay."

"I'll talk to Shinobu about getting you to work in the café" Momoko noted

"Anyways" Miyuki, deciding to change the topic, turned to her younger sister, "Are you ready for today?"

"Today?" Nanoha looked up in thought, trying to recall if something was important

"You know that new pool that opened up past the bus station?" Miyuki explained to refresh her memory, "You promised to go there after school today with your friends."

"Oh yeah!" Nanoha smiled, "I'm ready"

"_Huh?!" _Yuuno piped up in the mindspeak, reaching out to Nanoha and in the process dragged Sonic into the conversation as well, _"What's going on Nanoha?"_

"_Oh, it was a promise that we made before Yuuno-kun and Sonic-kun came here" _the girl quickly explained away the confusion, _"We're all going to the new pool together"_

"_Oh, a pool.."_ Yuuno nodded in thought

"_Since you two are here as well, you're both going to come as well" _Nanoha innocently said, _"Right, Yuuno-kun, Sonic-kun?"_

"_EH?!" _the ferret blinked a few times and looked between Nanoha and Miyuki, _"Uhmmm.."_

"Not exactly a big water fan because I can't swim" Sonic, instead of answering in the telepathy, opted to speak out, "But, why not? It sounds like fun and I don't have anything to do today anyways."

"You're coming too, Onii-chan." Nanoha asked her older brother, "Right?"

"Yeah" Kyouya nodded, "But I'll be there working as a life guard."

"_Ehm.. Nanoha.. uh.. Nanoha?" _ Yuuno tried calling out to the girl, but his attempts were futile as she didn't listen.

"This will be exciting!" as the girl got more excited for the pool trip, she paid less attention to the ferret, who tried so hard to get her attention, "I'll have a lot of fun with Alisa-chan and Suzuka-chan there too. Maybe we can get Sonic-kun to swim too"

"I'll need a lesson or two first" the hedgehog, eager to join in on the fun, chimed in, "But, yeah, I think I can have some fun"

"_You're not listening to me…"_ Yuuno hung his head in comical defeat.

* * *

**[Seishou Elementary School]  
[Time: 1500 hours (3 pm)]  
[No BGM]**

The end of the school day found Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka discussing the upcoming pool day while waiting outside of the campus for their ride.

"You both brought your swimsuits, right?" Alisa asked the two

"Yup!" Nanoha chimed cheerfully in reply and held up a bag that had her swimsuit in it.

"I read that the pool has slides and they allow tubes too" Suzuka added, "So I asked Farin to bring one"

"Oh!" Alisa's grin widened at that statement, "That sounds really fun!"

"Swimming with a tube in the pool sounds nice" Nanoha agreed to the statement.

For a few minutes they waited and talked a bit more, while she couldn't deny it when she was asked about how she would be sharing her room with Sonic starting tonight; she was surprised to hear that her friends didn't mind it. Though she couldn't help but laugh when Alisa commented loudly that if the hedgehog tried anything perverted, he'd have to answer to the dirty-blonde girl. Although it could be argued that such thoughts never occurred to Nanoha, and she didn't peg Sonic to be that type either.

The honking of a car horn dragged the three schoolgirls' attention to a limo that just parked next to a nearby curb. If the appearance wasn't familiar enough to Suzuka, the sight of a teenage-looking girl with long light-purple hair and wearing maids outfit was.

"Suzuka-chan!" the girl called out to the trio and waved them over

"Farin!" the heiress addressed her apparent housemaid and, with her friends in tow, went over to greet her. As they did that, out from the driver seat came another girl in a maid uniform. Though, unlike the fist, this one looked like she could be the older sister, her hair was a lighter purple and cut much shorter, just to the end of her neck.

"Alisa-ojou-sama, Nanoha-ojou-sama" the older maid addressed the two, "We've come to pick you up"

"Ah, Noel-san!" Alisa looked quite happy to see the older maid and addressed her like an older sibling figure, a sentiment shared by Nanoha as well.

"Arigatou-gozaimasu" Nanoha politely bowed in gratitude and, with Alisa and Suzuka behind her, went inside the limo before it drove off to the pool.

* * *

**[Takamachi Residence]  
[Time: 3:10 pm]  
[No BGM]**

While waiting for Miyuki, who was going to take them to the pool when she got home from an errand, Sonic decided to try and get some cleaning done around the house so that way he'd make a bigger and more favorable impression on the host family; Yuuno, having a major need to research some of the things about this world, turned on the TV to watch the mid-day news.

"… And now for a recent development that we reported last night about the sudden wall collapse in Misaka town in relation to the incident at Makibara animal hospital." The news broadcaster reported, "Upon further investigation, authorities have still yet to find the cause of the incident, though it's been confirmed that no people… excuse me… animals, were reported to have been injured"

"I'd argue differently to that last statement" Sonic quipped as he mopped the wood floors in a pair of borrowed slippers due to having his shoes, gloves, socks and scarf washed with the laundry, "But I technically should've been dead."

"Please be serious about this, Sonic" Yuuno requested with a sigh, "Although I can say that they probably won't be able to find any evidence of magic, the questions raised about the damage will have the authorities keep a better eye around here, and enough people already know about our magic than I would've liked."

"In other news, another day has passed and still the search on South Island has led to no results" the female news co-host reported on the next incident, this one catching Sonic's attention, "A few weeks ago, a once world-renowned genius scientist, Doctor Eggman, announced his declaration of world conquest. He started it by taking over the once peaceful South Island, just south of the harbor here in Uminari. He captured many of the island's inhabitants and used them as power sources for his machines."

Yuuno, stoically and neutrally, watched the report and took note of Eggman's appearance: Human male, bald head with a comically large dark-brown moustache, comically obese, but built much like an egg, red and black outfit, big red and pointed nose with small glasses. The loud, sudden splash caused by the mop jammed inside the bucket that held the water and floor-cleaning mix did not go unnoticed by the ferret, as he noted the blue hedgehog's obvious negative reaction to Eggman's appearance. Instead of commenting on it, however, the ferret chose to continue listening to the news report

"Days later; his base, which he called "Scrap Brain", was destroyed in a mysterious explosion. Authorities have spent the last week searching around the island for clues about the explosion and the whereabouts of Doctor Eggman; neither bearing any results." The news anchor sighed for a moment to gather her breath before finishing the report, "The Uminari City police reports that they will extend the search for another two weeks before recalling their investigative team. While there has been no interference from the island natives, there has been no short of the understandable mistrust. The authorities are currently redoubling their efforts to resolve this incident and retreat from the island before the situation escalates. We'll have an in-depth report on this incident, Eggman and South Island later tonight."

"For an old geezer who looks so much like the human's model of fitness, he can be slippery when he wants to be" Sonic snarked and mopped, "If he doesn't want to be seen, finding that guy's a lost cause."

"You've seen this man in person?" Yuuno questioned, 'Does that mean you've seen what they are reporting about?"

"I had the best seat in the house for the show" the hedgehog merely shrugged and kept working. His silence on the matter was the ferret's golden hint that it probably wouldn't do much good to keep talking about the incident with him.

'_So he does know… maybe he was one of the captured inhabitants? If he was, how did he break out? And if he wasn't how is he able to speak of the incident like he was so close to it' _Yuuno tried to think hard about the mystery, _'The local authorities are currently handling the investigation, but if I'm right about this feeling I have; and I hope I'm wrong, they're going to need some "outside" help. And a mysterious incident like this, plus the Jewel Seeds, would be the perfect reason for the TSAB to start getting involved. I just hope that I can be a big enough help for Sonic and Nanoha to resolve this incident before it escalades to that point'_

"Tadaima!" Miyuki called out as she entered the house, which quickly led Yuuno to turn off the television and start his best attempt of acting like an actual ferret. While the girl and her family know about him, others do not so he had to practice the cover of a house-pet.

"Welcome back" Sonic acknowledged the girl as she came in, "uh, watch your step, I just mopped there"

"I noticed" The girl nodded, no short amount of impressment on her face, "You did a great job here"

"I know how to clean up a mess or two" the hedgehog shrugged.

"Anyways" the teen addressed the two, "Are you ready?"

"Yup!" Sonic nodded with a small grin, "This should be fun"

"Kyun!" Yuuno, though as embarrassing and degrading to him as it was, made his best impression of a ferret cry.

"Well I can say he's ready" Sonic shrugged in reference to the Tutorial Ferret, "But if you're looking for a translation, he literally just said "Kyun"…. Nothing else"

The ferret once again sent another dirty look in the hedgehog's direction, but nothing came from it as the hedgehog just shrugged it off again.

* * *

**[Pool]  
[No BGM]**

The grand opening of a pool certainly can drag a lot of attention and people out to have some fun, especially after a long day of hard work. The pool itself was structured quite well for a crowd with diverse tastes. There was a play/wave area for the youth, a lap pool for some competitive practice and a stage for some reason.

For Kyouya Takamachi, one of the life-guards on duty to ensure the safety of the children around, his work day would prove to be busy. He had one takeaway from the job as his family and their friends would arrive soon.

"Kyouya-san!" And just on cue, out came the mostly female party to have fun, led by Alisa Bannings.

With the obvious exception of Sonic and Yuuno; all of them were wearing a variety of swimsuits. The type of suit ranged from the two piece suits like Alisa Bannings had donned, though hers was a mix of a two-piece and a swimsuit with frills on the top and bottom and her mid-drift on full display; the one-piece suits like the cute ones that Nanoha, Suzuka and Farin had worn; and finally, for the more grown up and risqué there were the bikinis that Miyuki and Noel had sported, neither of them quite too modest about their looks.

"Hello girls" Kyouya took a small detour on his patrol to meet with them. He suppressed a chuckle at seeing the humorous expressions that Sonic and Yuuno, the only other males present in the party, had. Yuuno looked embarrassed and uncomfortable, and as did Sonic, but for different reasons, "And hedgehog and ferret"

"Y-yo.." Sonic weakly waved, and grew a bit weaker at the sight of the rather deep pool. Some past memories and experiences may have influenced his condition.

"Kyun…" the ferret didn't look any better, and he was thankful that his short size made it easy to hide the red-tint of his cheeks.

"That lifeguard look really suits you Kyou-chan" Miyuki complimented, using a rather cute nickname for her older brother. Feeling a bit happy and somewhat of a tease, she got the three boys' attention and directed them to the choice of swimsuits, "What do you guys think of our choice of swimsuits?"

"We were really excited to choose them" Farin chimed, the younger of the two maids for the Tsukimura household. They gave Sonic quite a surprise when he first saw them as he almost mistaken them for robots or machines for some reason, but he quickly quashed that theory upon seeing how kind they were.

"Well.. they um…" Kyouya looked around a little bit, trying to find the right words, while Sonic and Yuuno were speechless; though the hedgehog was more uncomfortable with the water than he was of the girls, but no one, aside from him, could honestly have been able to tell the difference.

"Sexy~?" Alisa teasingly chimed and made a cute pose in an attempt to flaunt that aspect.

"Y-yeah.." the older brother figure had an exasperated sweat-drop at that suggestion, though he couldn't deny that appeal worked for the two in bikinis, though that also could've been influenced by the typical hormonal male mind.

'_I don't think Sonic or Nanoha have noticed this..'_ Yuuno thought to himself as he tried desperately so hard not to stare at the girls in swimsuits and distract himself with more serious thoughts, _'But I'm sensing a weak magical power here… could it be from a Jewel Seed?'_

At any rate, the pool adventure started off quite smoothly. After some kicking, whining, and tricking, Alisa got Sonic to get into the pool, where he almost sunk right away and it was the quick thinking and the surprising amount of strength that Suzuka had that she was able to get him to the shallow end of the pool to start with the basics. For Alisa, while she, Suzuka and Nanoha started to teach the young boy hedgehog on the basics of swimming, she took notice of what looked to be a stage of some sorts close-by with a microphone in the middle of it.

"Kyouya-san?" the girl asked, "What's that stage over there for?"

"Singing" Kyouya answered without missing a beat, "I saw some girls using it earlier. Since it was put in, it seems to be getting popularity"

"Hmmm! Say who wants to sing?" Alisa asked amongst her friends at the pool

"No way" both Nanoha and Suzuka declined, they weren't quite willing to give it a try

"Count me out" Sonic shook his head in decline as well while Yuuno didn't need to answer. Not only would he be bad at it... but also a singing ferret? That would be something that the blue hedgehog will NEVER let him live down.

"Miyuki-san? Farin?" the girl turned to ask the older girls

"No way! I'm bad at it" Miyuki quickly declined as well

"I'll be worse!" Farin shared that sentiment

"If I may" Noel offered, no small amount of amusement and teasing in her tone, "Shouldn't it be the one who suggested it be the first to try? Ne, Alisa-ojou-sama?"

"ugh" the girl just blinked, while everyone else just seemed to gain a rather dangerous aura about them

"Who wants to hear Alisa-chan sing?" Miyuki called out

"Me!" Everyone except for Yuuno chimed out all at once

"Kyun!" The mentioned Tutorial Ferret, still under his regular ferret cover, tried to voice his agreement

"Geh?! Is this some sort of trap?" Alisa, with shades of a tsunderish tone to her voice, groaned, "I should've kept my mouth shut!"

"The receptionist is over there" Kyouya directed the 9 year old to where she could go to sign up for a song.

"Fine then!" Alisa said after going through all the embarrassment of signing up for singing. She took center stage and called out to her friends, "I'll give it my all and show you guys how I can sing!"

**[Alisa's song: "Precious Time" by Rie Kugimiya]  
(AN: Sorry, no lyrics for this one, I can't find them, therefore skipping!)**

At the end of her song, Alisa was mildly surprised to find that she had drawn more to the crowd than her close friends. The reception she got was pretty good too, a few claps, cheers and such.

"Wow! Sugoi!" Nanoha voiced her excitement and enjoyment with her clapping

"How cute" Noel voiced her approval

"Well I guess it felt pretty good" the dere-dere part of Alisa's personality briefly showed in her modesty

"Encore! Encore!" Sonic called out, though he meant it as a joke

"No!" and the tsun-tsun part returns for Alisa's response

"S-sorry…" The hedgehog quickly took the statement back and flinched, _'Lesson learned, don't mess with her'_

**[BGM: "Tanoshii Kyuujitsu" MGLN OST]**

After all that was said and done, Alisa rejoined her friends in the pool. During the time when the trio of girls were at the wave pool, their resident ferret finally had something to be proud of. Something that FINALLY gave him an advantage over his blue hedgehog rival: the ability to swim! The girls found it rather humorous and cute that Yuuno was acting in a proud/flaunting manner over something that he held over Sonic's head, while the hedgehog was doing his best impression of a tsundere pouty schoolgirl.

"Of course, Tutorial Ferret now has something to hold over my head…" the hedgehog pouted, "He probably won't let me live it down.."

"There there, Sonic-kun" Alisa, the resident tsundere, shared the hedgehog's feelings, and did her best to cheer him up "We'll teach you how to swim, ne girls?"

"Hai!" Suzuka and Nanoha chimed

"Be careful about your belongings" Kyouya called out to the girls\

"Eh?" they all, Miyuki aside, blinked, curiously wondering what the issue was.

"Well." Miyuki voiced an explanation, "Apparently, yesterday, there was this guy who was stealing swimsuits and clothing from the changing rooms."

"And we already caught a boy inside the girl's changing room today" Kyouya added, his tone matching his concerned expression, "There hasn't been any incidents yet as far as attacks or anything, but there's a lot of young female customers here.. so we have to be careful."

"_Say, Nanoha"_ Yuuno asked the girl via mind-speak, _"Do you mind if I have a look around?"_

"_Um.. sure," _Nanoha replied positively, though she couldn't help but voice her worries, _"Will you be alright though? Like afraid you could get lost?"_

"_I'll be fine"_ the ferret waved her concern away and took off for another direction.

While Nanoha and Alisa, with the help of Noel, helped Sonic in learning how to swim, Suzuka and Miyuki decided to have a race of a few laps in the lap pool. Even though she was much shorter, Suzuka still gave the older girl a run for her money. Nevertheless she came up short and Miyuki won. What neither of them knew was that Alisa had talked with Farin about a little penalty for the loser, and that penalty was the loser would have to sing. Much to her reluctance and embarrassment, Susuka walked up to the stage and gave her song.

**[Suzuka's song: "Definitely Stand by You" by Ai Shimizu]  
[AN: Due to an already high word count, the lyrics will not be shown]**

For Suzuka, it was embarrassing, but she managed to sing the whole song, and much like Alisa, she too drew a nice crowd and response.

* * *

**[Boiler Room]  
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" FFX OST]**

Elsewhere, things were not so peaceful, as Kyouya, off of his shift in the pool, had patrolled the Boiler Room in search of any trouble makers. Little did he know that he would indeed get that trouble; as there was something brewing in the boiler room, but it wasn't entirely human.

"What the?!" Kyouya stared ahead of him in confusion, he couldn't see what the thing ahead of him was due to the dark shadows, but what he did catch looked more liquid-like.

'_Oh no! This power… it's activated'_ Yuuno detected the growing power and quickly rushed to the boiler room to check it out, calling out to Nanoha and Sonic, _"Nanoha! Sonic! A Jewel Seed has activated!"_

"_We know… We could feel its power" _Nanoha replied back from the pool area and quickly got out with Sonic in tow to dry off and head off to the source of the power they felt.

"What is tha- ugh!" Kyouya's thoughts were immediately interrupted by a harsh impact with the metallic side of one of the boilers and he was rendered unconscious. Luckily for him, the blow wasn't really all that hard and he wouldn't suffer any permanent injuries aside from a headache he'd wake up with in the morning.

"Kyouya-san!" Yuuno rushed inside to check on the unconscious young man. Seeing the lack of injuries, the ferret tried to see the Jewel Seed monster. With no success, he moved onto plan B, "Standard Barrier! Expand!"

The sudden expansion of a barrier caught Nanoha and Sonic, both clad in their Barrier Jackets, a bit off guard and made them stop for a moment. That in turn also allowed them to get a good look at just what they were facing.

The monster looked large and entirely made out of water. Despite the animal-like growls it made, it didn't seem to have any distinct features aside from the pinkish-red eyes. The Jewel Seed looked like it was in where the monster's forehead would be if it had a face.

"Uwah!" Nanoha shouted in shock and surprise, "It's big! Is it a water monster?"

"Looks like it" Sonic just stared, holding his blades in a neutral position, and much to his and Nanoha's surprise, the monster took one look at them, but turned away and headed for the pool.

"Nanoha! Sonic!" Yuuno called out to them as the ferret managed to catch up to his allies, "Thank goodness I caught up.. I managed to make a barrier, but the range is so huge that there are still some people trapped inside"

"We better help them out" Sonic declared and, after grasping his mistress's hand, revved up his Super-Peel-Out and rushed for the pool. When they got there, they were greeted with yet another surprise, as if one wasn't enough.

* * *

**[Pool area]  
[BGM: "Enemy Attack" Final Fantasy X OST]**

Sure enough, there was panic caused amongst the pool-goers with the loud growls. The lifeguards were really busy in evacuating the area, so that way no one would get hurt. All but two managed to make it out safely. The two that couldn't were Alisa and Suzuka as they were trapped in the wave pool with the monster inside of it.

"Alisa-chan! Suzuka-chan!" Nanoha rushed over to the two with Sonic right behind her. Much to their surprise and Yuuno's shock-but-soon horror, the monster didn't appear to be attacking them.

"W-what is that thing?!" Alisa struggled against its grasp

"It's trying to take our swimsuits off!" Suzuka squealed out as the monster was indeed doing just that.

"Eek! Get off! Don't touch there!" Alisa flailed but her attempts were futile and she, like Suzuka were soon caught and stripped of their suits by the monster.

"Geh!" Yuuno quickly turned his head and body away from the sight of the two nude 9-year-olds. The poor ferret was blushing up a storm and fidgeting, "M-must not look.. m-must not look!"

The monster, after it had stripped the two girls of their swimsuits, spit them out of it and released them into the wave pool. Sonic and Nanoha both watched as it happened; while Nanoha was concerned for her friends, she couldn't quite resist subtly staring at them and blushing a bit in her face.

"H-how mean!" Suzuka cried out as she covered her private areas in an attempt of modesty

"Stealing our swimsuits and spitting us out! Give it back! Give it back!" Alisa pouted and instead of mimicking her friend's modest actions, she flailed her arms and glared at the monster. However, the monster suddenly showed a lack of interest in the two girls and sent a huge tidal wave in their direction, "Uwah!"

"_**Protection"**_ Raising Heart chimed in as Nanoha stood in front of her friends with Sonic in tow. With the protection spell canceling out its attack, the monster moved on to another pool in search for more prey.

"A-alisa-chan. Suzuka-chan" the Barrier Jacket-clad girl, trying and failing to suppress her slightly-pink cheeks, addressed her friends after saving them from the wave, "A-are you alright?"

"H-hai" Suzuka stuttered out, embarrassed from being naked in front of her friends, "T-thanks"

"I'm fine too" the other girl was a bit embarrassed of her naked state, but not so much as Suzuka was, and in fact, she had a bit of a smirk when she noticed the crimson tinted cheeks of the only girl currently wearing any clothes, "Oh, Nanoha-chan? You like what you see? You're staring"

"E-eh?" Nanoha stuttered and sputtered, her blush contradicted her denial, "N-no!"

"You look like you are. I didn't know you liked me that way, you little perv~! I wonder, what happens if I lower my hands" The dirty-blonde smirked a bit more mischievously and slowly started to flaunt her body's childish features in a teasing fashion and attempt of sex appeal. Hoping she'd give Nanoha a little tease of a show. While her efforts did have some success in darkening the poor girl's blush, despite the attempts of Suzuka to stop her; her show didn't last any more than thirty seconds before a thrown towel pelted her right in the face. The force of the impact almost threw her off balance, "Uwah! Hey!"

"Yes, as much as I hate to interrupt your fun. There's still a monster out there and I think it's trying to find a changing room or something, so can we focus?" Sonic deadpanned as he softly gave Suzuka a towel to wrap around herself for modesty. The blue hedgehog stared flatly at the girl and that gave her the message to put the towel on. After watching her doing so, Sonic sighed, "Thank you, now will someone tell me what the heck is up with that thing?"

"Ah! Uhmmm.." Yuuno, finally able to turn and look at the group of thee girls plus hedgehog in the eye, "This is just a guess…but that Jewel Seed may have been activated by a human, and that specific human's desires and interests are influencing its actions."

"So apparently, somewhere in this pool, or wherever that seed was; there was a human who had the desire to collect girl's clothing?" Sonic deadpanned in question, quickly face palming when Yuuno nodded in agreement, "Okay…. Now who was close when that thing activated?"

"Kyouya-san was in the Boiler Room and that was where I sensed the seed's activation, and he was the only one in the room too when the seed activated from what I saw.." the ferret recalled, and quickly tried to defend the apparent culprit of dirty thoughts, "B-but he was unconscious when I found him and the monster was gone before then."

"Kyouya-san is ecchi!" Alisa said firmly

"Onee-san won't like this.." Suzuka shook her head

"Onii-chan." Nanoha was equally disappointed in her brother, who thankfully was unconscious but will definitely have an earful when everything's all said and done

"Uh hello? Girls?" Sonic interrupted them again, "There's still a weird monster over there"

"Say, Sonic-kun…" Alisa leered at the blue hedgehog, making him feel a bit uncomfortable, "Why are you so awfully calm about this? Eh?"

"Where I'm from, clothes are kinda either a luxury or just worn to look cool. Either way, they are optional." the hedgehog shrugged, "I don't really get the whole point of this anyways."

'_Wow he's innocent'_ the trio plus ferret thought in observation.

"Again with the staring, can we hurry up please?" the hedgehog's impatience was starting to show.

"Since it doesn't appear to be doing anything violent or aggressive, it should be easy to seal" Nanoha made an assumption as she, plus Sonic behind her, started to approach the Jewel Seed beast, "Raising Heart?"

"_**Cannon Mode"**_ the device chimed out and morphed into the specific mode. After her device did so, Nanoha focused her attention on the monster and sent out streams of mana to hold the monster tight. The spell did the trick, but there was one little issue, the Jewel Seed did not show its Serial Number.

"Uh.. There's no number to this one.." Sonic observed, cautiously holding his blades in preparation for any trouble.

"I'm going to try and seal it anyway" Nanoha pointed Raising Heart right at the monster, "Lyrical Magical, Jewel Seed. Seal!"

"_**Sealing!"**_ the device chimed out and unleashed a burst of magic. While the attack hit the monster dead on, it did not seal, and instead a small explosion occurred, and when the dust settled, the monster was nowhere to be seen, instead there was only the girls' underwear and swimsuits it previously stole in its place, including Alisa's and Suzuka's.

Nanoha had to fight off a blush and keep from staring at all of the different types of underwear lying around. Sonic, on the other hand, figured he could do something productive and took the swimsuits that belonged to the duo of currently towel-draped girls and return them to her.

"That's odd… the seed isn't here, but I can still sense it's aura" Yuuno, who just so happened to be looking in another direction, thought out loud about the odd occurrence, "Could the seed still be hibernating?"

"EEEH?!" Nanoha blinked

"Anyways, we've got to hurry and find it!" The ferret started towards the direction of the aura, but only made about four steps before he collapsed hard onto the ground

"Whoa, easy there Tutorial Ferret" Sonic was the first to check on him

"I'm all right…" Yuuno may have said that, but the way his head was spinning in dizziness seemed to say otherwise, "I just feel a bit dizzy.."

"Yuuno-kun, you've used too much magic, didn't you? You've been looking for the Jewel Seeds all by yourself up until when we found you…. And you've only just recovered from your injuries so…. Oh!" Nanoha suddenly had a genius idea, "My shoulder!"

"Eh?" the ferret blinked and suddenly found himself being lifted up into Nanoha's grasp, "Wha? Shoulder?"

"From now on, my shoulder is your reserved seat" the girl declared firmly and softly placed Yuuno on his reserved seat.

"You make it sound like you're going to give him popcorn up there, Nanoha" Sonic quipped, "But wait, if he gets your shoulder, than what do I get?"

"A-ah….can I get back to you on that?" Nanoha comically paused, "A-anyways! Let's go!"

"Hai!" Sonic and Yuuno agreed as the trio quickly confronted the source of the aura

* * *

**[Versus: Ecchi Water Jewel Seed Beast]  
[BGM: "Paradigm Shift" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]**

They found the monster, or more appropriately, monsters; as the beast was dividing into multiple copies of itself and they all scattered across the pool area, searching hard for the sacred treasure that was a girl's swimsuit and undergarments. Panties, bikinis, bras, one-piece, two-piece, they were all found from some of the bags left behind by the female customers in their haste to leave.

"Grr.. there's too many of them!" Sonic groaned as he launched himself into the fray to try and take out at least some of the nuisances, "Is there anything we can do?"

"An enforcement bind is beyond your abilities…. And there hasn't been any support spells already active on you either so that can't help.." Yuuno thought out loud, "I'll have to gather them up in one place and bind them all at once."

"No good, Yuuno-kun" Nanoha quickly shook her head, "You can't do that in your condition."

"But!"

"No buts!" the girl would have none of that, "I'll try out that new spell I learned this morning in practice. We just have to get them gathered all at once and bind them, right? Sonic-kun!"

"Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!" Sonic agreed with a mock salute, "One package of lots and lots of weird water monsters gathered up in one spot, coming right up!"

Teasing, strikes, taunting, anyway that Sonic could, he gathered the attention of the water monsters that he was fighting. With his trademark speed, he ran circles around them all and made use of the water's waves to drag a majority of monsters towards a central point.

"Make an image, put magic into it" Nanoha told herself as she began to focus, the pink magic circle shined at her feet like it did earlier that morning. The magic must have been as obvious to the monster as it was to Yuuno because it started to rush right for her.

"Uh! Nanoha! The monster noticed the magic, it's after you!" The Tutorial Ferret, though pointing out the obvious, alerted the girl to the beast's upcoming attack, "Evade it with a flying spell!"

"Uh… Yuuno-kun…" Nanoha, in her best impression of her familiar, deadpanned, "You haven't taught me any flight spells yet..."

"Oh…" To say Yuuno was embarrassed would be a mild understatement, "T-that's right.."

The monster rushed quickly for the mage and ferret, intending on stopping them from getting in the way of its perverted ambition of stealing girls' underwear and swimsuits. Just before it got to them, Sonic cut right in front of it and bared its path.

"Oh no you don't" the blue hedgehog, smirking in confidence despite his size disadvantage, stared up at the beast, "You want an opponent? I'll play with you"

While Sonic did his best to multi-task in keeping the Jewel Seed beast away from his mistress as well as keeping them gathered in one place for Nanoha to come up with the appropriate binding spell to wrap them all up. From then on she'd try to seal it again.

"Binding Spell…" Nanoha said in deep concentration as she focused hard on an image ideal of the spell she wanted, once again she found the image and focused on it, "Lyrical Magical, capture and paralysis magic… RESTRICT LOCK! (she said that in English)"

Once again, Nanoha's spell was unleashed, and this time around it had much different results. Ribbons of pink mana, combined with bursts in the shape of wheels, literally collected all of the copies of the Jewel Seed monster and bound them in place with the original also held.

"Whoa!" The blue hedgehog quickly jumped out of the way to avoid getting caught up in the binding spell himself, "Good girl"

"Wow… It's completely paralyzed!" Yuuno gawked in amazement, "That's a high level spell."

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha called out her incantation again

Once again the sealing spell was initiated, and this time the Jewel Seed's serial number was revealed with the roman numerals "XVII"

"Lyrical Magical, Jewel Seed Serial 17, Seal!" Nanoha called out and unleashed her spell.

The monster roared in pain as the binds tightened and exploded in a huge flash of light. The monster was gone and all that was left of it were the lingerie and swimsuits it collected as well as the Jewel Seed itself. Anxious to put an end to the incident once and for all, Nanoha touched the tip of her staff to the Seed.

"_**Receipt number Seventeen" **_Raising Heart declared, _**"Sealed"**_

* * *

**[Boss Neutralized]  
[Jingle: "Act Clear" Sonic CD (US) OST]**

The two only had time for a short victory pose and cheer before the magic barrier set up by Yuuno had disappeared. Much to the two's surprise and relief, all underwear and swimsuits that were stolen by the monster were returned to their rightful owners as the magic that caused the incident had been dealt with.

"Well it's good that we sealed the seed and everyone's going to be happy now" Nanoha noted as she released her Barrier Jacket and Raising Heart's device mode, "We only have 4 seeds now and there's 17 left"

"Think on the positives, Nanoha" Sonic grinned up at her after releasing his own jacket, "That's one less problem to worry about and we're getting momentum on our side."

"Yeah" Yuuno tiredly agreed

"Yuuno-kun?" the girl asked as she and Sonic started back towards Alisa and Suzuka to check up on them, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…" The ferret nodded, though deep in his mind, he pondered the magic potential that he saw from that last fight, _'I wonder about their magical senses… I can sense potential in Nanoha and Sonic that is far above my own, though I can't tell if they are either clumsy with it, or just unskilled. Either way, looking at it now, there's no way it can't get dangerous. Even though she has a familiar, he's just as impulsive and I can't help but worry that the both of them are going to get hurt. No matter what, I'll do my best to help them seal the seeds.'_

**[30 Minutes later]  
[BGM: "Honobono" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

Almost like nothing had happened, peace returned to the pool. Kyouya, who initially was confused as to what knocked him out in the Boiler Room aside from the Boiler bursting and drenching him in water. But he shrugged it off and returned to his rounds. Hopefully his moment of lax wouldn't cost him his job.

Much to the young man's shock and for reasons unknown to him; Nanoha, Alisa and Suzuka dared not look him in the eye. When they did look at him; they looked just a bit miffed at him and their faces showed that. That, honestly confused him, whatever did he do to earn their wrath?

As for Sonic and Nanoha; either he copied her or she copied him, either way, the two of them were out in the wave pool, relaxing on matching tube rings. It was quite a cute sight; and they probably only needed a can of soda or something for the finishing touches. Alisa couldn't resist the urge to take a picture of it with her phone; she'll send a copy to Nanoha later on of course.

Meanwhile with Suzuka, Miyuki and the two maids, it was all fun and games in the pool; they all had the opportunity to sit back, relax and just simply enjoy the feeling of the cool water on their bodies. The girls had also dragged Yuuno into the pool and away from his thoughts. After Miyuki, Noel and Farin had heard about the ferret's talents, they wanted to see him swim, and he did not disappoint.

"_One of these days, we really gotta ask him how he swims"_ Sonic said to Nanoha via the mindspeak as his tube softly bounced off of hers. Since the two had gotten them there was something that the blue hedgehog couldn't help but feel was missing and he had been trying to figure it out since the thought came up. Well, finally he figured out what was missing, _"Nanoha! Next time we're doing this, we are so buying sunglasses!"_

"_Somehow, I knew you were going to say that"_ the girl, with humor evident in her childish face, replied back with a cute grin, _"Although, I can't disagree…"_

'_Well, one thing's for sure'_ Yuuno thought to himself in observation of the mage and familiar, _'these two are really starting to get along well.'_

* * *

**[Takamachi Residence]  
[Nanoha's Room]  
[Time: 8:30 pm]  
[No BGM]**

At the end of the day, Nanoha and Sonic had dinner with the family, where they were given quite the humorous display of Miyuki lecturing Kyouya on a few things. One of them being not to have dirty thoughts when close to a powerful jewel that may perform actions based on those thoughts; apparently she got the story from Sonic and Nanoha. In Kyouya's defense, there were a lot of girls at the swimming pool, so any guy, save Sonic, would've probably been thinking along the same lines.

After dinner, the two took turns in the bath with Sonic going first to clean up all of the chemicals, dirt and whatnot that the pool adventure had given him. When he finished, Nanoha took her turn, and for a few obvious reasons, she took a little bit more time. But it didn't matter to Sonic or Yuuno as they had a chance to use that extra time and talk a bit.

"You know, she really surprised me" the ferret, now seated in a basket on Nanoha's desk, said to the blue hedgehog about the girl, "I didn't think she would have been able to pull off a binding spell of that high level"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't agree with you" Sonic shrugged, "But, I think she's like me in the way that neither of us give up, even with the odds against us."

"Yeah, that's true" Yuuno nodded, "In a way I kind of envy you both; When I first met you, I wasn't sure what you could do, and the first monster really hurt you, yet you still had a laugh, how do you do this sort of thing? Face danger head on and treat it like nothing?"

"It's just what I do" the hedgehog shrugged, and just at that time, Nanoha came in, her hair let down from the usual pigtails style and she was in her pajamas.

"What are you two talking about?" the girl questioned in curiosity

"My apparent lack of fear" Sonic answered honestly.

"Yeah, I'm amazed by that too" Nanoha added to that, "And today, you really surprised me. Even after all that was going on, you still kept your cool."

"What can I say?" the hedgehog shrugged, "I'm good with pressure"

"Well, we have a nice weekend ahead of us, so I think we can relax a bit" the girl brightly chimed as she started to climb into her bed, close to the end, as if to send the hedgehog a message, "I think it's best we go to sleep now so we can wake up early."

"Uh.. time out there" Sonic, quickly getting the hint, shook his head, "You're not gonna try to share that bed, are you?"

"Well I can't have you sleeping on the floor, that's even worse than the couch" the girl countered, "Besides, even though we don't know each other that well yet, I still get this good feeling that I can trust you, so please don't let me be wrong."

"Well.. I guess if you put it like that.." the hedgehog sighed in defeat and crawled in to the open space. Luckily, due to his small size and build, he could easily fit inside and not even take up half of it. With a yawn to show just how tied he was, Sonic leaned against the second pillow, "Good night…."

"Good night" Nanoha soon joined him for a long, peaceful night's sleep to put an end to the long day.

**[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]**

* * *

**[End of Chapter 4]**

Author's notes: Wow! Talk about long chapters, this one gets well over the 8,000 mark. Talk about a high quality gem with a lot of content.. Well, this is what happens when I use a drama cd / sound stage for basis. Get a lot of scenes and dialogue in.


	5. Chapter 5

SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in another chapter of Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar. Gotten a lot of favorites and follows lately, so I'm glad that I'm getting these stories noticed. Not to be picky, but I'd like to have some constructive criticism too so I can see where I can improve. Anyways, here we go!

* * *

**[Uminari City]  
[Seishou Elementary School]  
[Time: 2020 hours]  
[No BGM]**

Nanoha and Sonic, both clad in their respective Barrier Jackets, stood at the front of the large school on a beautiful, well-lit Saturday night. The two of them looked like they were in a little bit of a tussle of sorts as there was some dirt and marks on their jackets. Above the two of them was a Jewel Seed that looked ready to be sealed.

"_**Standby, Ready!"**_ Raising Heart chimed, as it was ready to seal the seed.

"Lyrical Magical!" The girl declared out her magical incantation, staring at the seed, "Serial Seed 20, Seal!"

The spell did the trick, though at the same time it also made quite a bit of a light show with the streams of light flaring out from the vicinity of the school. If anyone was watching, they might have noticed, but at the time of night, that was doubtful. The Jewel Seed floated in front of the two; its roman numerals "XX" were visible in a red inscription.

The staff of Raising Heart let out a burst of steam from its head. Nanoha looked a bit exhausted from the whole ordeal as she had to lean on it to balance herself and catch the breaths she had been holding and releasing from that fatigue.

"Good work, Nanoha" Yuuno congratulated the girl, "You sealed another seed"

"Hey, whoa! Whoa!" Sonic grumbled, "Don't I get any credit for this?"

"…. Good job, Sonic…" the ferret corrected himself, and made no attempt to hide his annoyance in the tone he put into that congratulatory statement, more evidence of slight favoritism to the girl.

The hedgehog may have grumbled a bit, but made no other gestures as there was no sense in making an issue out of a non-issue. The three began their long trek home and it was on that route that Nanoha's fatigue showed more. The girl did not dismiss her staff and was actually using it to walk, drawing some concern from her hedgehog and ferret allies.

"Uh..Nanoha.." Yuuno asked in concern, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" she breathed out, though her tired expression said completely to the contrary, "Just a little…just a little…tired"

If she tried to say anything else, she never had the chance to as she found herself collapsing all of a sudden. Much to the amusement of Yuuno, the girl landed right on her hedgehog familiar's back. She didn't weigh too much, but the way she was positioned combined with the fact that both she and Sonic ended up face down, made the hedgehog incapable of moving.

"Hey! Nanoha! Get off! I can't move! Oy!" Sonic whined and flailed his arms a little bit. The snickering and amused expression by Yuuno made the blue hedgehog glare at him in annoyance, "Oy! Tutorial Ferret! Stop laughing and get some help!"

* * *

**[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar  
Chapter 5  
The Town is in Danger?!**

* * *

**[Midori-ya Café: Takamachi Residence]  
[Nanoha's room]  
[Time: 0730]**

Yuuno sat at the foot of the shared bed of Nanoha and Sonic. Both of them looked to either be sound asleep or at least trying to get another minute or two in. The bright morning sun shining through the pink curtains of the girl's bedroom windows did not help their efforts. However it happened, Yuuno managed to get the two of them back home and able to give the good news before they both slept the previous night away. Now the newly-nicknamed "Tutorial Ferret" was presented with his most difficult challenge yet, waking up the hedgehog and girl.

"Nanoha? Sonic?" The ferret called out to them, "It's time to wake up!"

"Yuuno-kun, it's Sunday…" Nanoha replied and turned over in her bed, pressing her face in the pillow, "Five more minutes"

"Yeah…" Sonic rolled right with her, "Five more minutes; we worked our tails off last night"

The ferret groaned a little bit and kept trying to get them up by calling out. They were both awake; but not so much interested in getting up and out of the bed. Finally they both rolled back over to stare at the ceiling. In doing so, they caused the ferret, who was on the top sheet of the bed, to get rolled to the side. Sonic caught that, but declined to give it any further thought; instead, he glanced at Nanoha, who was counting the five Jewel Seeds that they currently had.

'_It's been a week since we started this thing, and we've already got five seeds out of it.'_ Sonic mentally recapped, _'I think that I've gotten used to this… being bound to this girl as her "Familiar". But… I can't help but worry that all of this is taking its toll on her. I'm living off of her with this magic bond and the only thing I've been able to do is convince her to help me bug the Tutorial Ferret to give us a day off. '_

"You know what…" Yuuno let out a sigh after he freed himself of the mess of bed sheets, "You both have me convinced. It's probably for the best that you have a day off to relax. You've already collected five seeds this week"

"Two of those in the first two days" Sonic noted, "And we've dealt with the Tutorial monster, Demon dog that really disliked Alisa, some water monster with a weird interest in girl's swimsuits.."

"At any rate.. Today you WILL take a break" Yuuno noted in a declarative fashion, "Neither of you will be able to last as mage and familiar otherwise."

"Well.." Nanoha said as she finally sat up, "I guess a break today won't hurt."

"We've got something to do today as well" Sonic noted as he got up as well; though he went a little bit further and got off of the bed, "A promise or something you said that you'd keep, Nanoha?"

* * *

**[Soccer Field]  
[No BGM]**

As Nanoha had said and what Sonic had alluded to earlier that morning; the two of them, with Yuuno on Nanoha's shoulder, met with Alisa and Suzuka at the nearby soccer field. The girls were all in casual clothes. Even Sonic was in clothing, albeit it was a pinkish short-sleeved sports-jacket. From what the girls had explained to the hedgehog and ferret, Nanoha's father owned and coached a youth soccer team called the Midori-ya JFC. They had a 10 o'clock am Sunday game; and Nanoha and her friends had promised to show up and cheer for the team.

"Wow, we've really filled out the stands today" Shiro informed his opposite number as a coach they were around the same age and knew each other well enough, so there was a sense of familiarity between the two, "Think we should start the game?"

"Sure" the other coach agreed, "I was thinking the same thing"

The game started and Midori-ya immediately went on the offensive side, moving the ball toward their opponent's side of the field. The full crowd helped with the morale of the team. In a rather enthusiastic way, Alisa and Suzuka cheered on the team from Midori-ya.

"_So this is a sport in your world?"_ Yuuno, seated comfortably in Nanoha's lap, asked the girl and Sonic via the mind-speak, _"The way they are playing with the ball?"_

"_Yup! It's a real fun game called "Soccer" _Nanoha answered briefly

As she said that, one of the Midori-ya boys got the ball and drilled it right past the goalie and into the net, eliciting cheers from the fans from the Midori-ya side.

"_You move the ball from one side of the field to the other, points are scored when the ball makes it into the other teams net, and each goal is worth one point."_ the hedgehog added, _"But here's the real trick, the players on the field can only use their feet to advance the ball. Only the goalie, that's the kid in front of the net, is allowed to block with his hands."_

"_It sounds like a fun sport" _Yuuno commented.

Sakuradai, the opposing team, made their own drive down the field following Midori-ya's goal. The forward got the ball and attempted his shot. The ball took a high bounce off a defender's head and looked like it was a sure goal on the upper corner of the net. But a great diving defensive grab by Midori-ya's goalie saved it!

"Oh ho! Nice play!" Alisa shouted in cheer

"Oh yeah" Sonic nodded, "if that shot went through, we would've had a brand new ballgame."

"_What about you, Yuuno-kun?" _Nanoha asked the ferret-archeologist curiously, _"Don't you have sports like this on your world?"_

"_Yeah, but I'm also an archeologist, so whatever time I'm not researching in a library, I'm out on digs" _Yuuno shook his head, _"So I don't get a chance to play too often."_

"_You're kinda the same as me then, I'm not very good at sports either" _Nanoha sheepishly giggled a little bit; that thought led her to curiously glance over at her familiar, _"What about you, Sonic-kun? You seem very athletic, so I imagine you've played sports before"_

"_Actually, no, I don't play that much either" _Sonic shook his head, _"Sure I'm athletic, but I'm also short. I'll try a track race or two every now and then, but most of my time otherwise is spent napping under some palm tree or reading a book on aviation."_

The loud volume of the crowd noise kept Yuuno and Nanoha from asking for any sort of clarification from the hedgehog. The game ended rather quickly after the two halves of regulation. The final score was 2-0 with Midori-ya getting the shutout win over Sakuradai. After the game, Shiro, in recognition for the youth's hard work, offered to treat them all to lunch at the Midori-ya café.

* * *

**[Midori-ya Café]  
[BGM: "Eeto Desu ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

It may have been due to the full house of entire Midori-ya JFC soccer team leaving them little room, but the trio of girls plus hedgehog and ferret opted to eat their sweets outside. The three girls had strawberry shortcakes and glasses of juice in front of them each as they all were quite up to enjoying a sweet or two.

For some reason, though, the girls plus ferret were all staring at the blue hedgehog with exasperated expressions. It wasn't his choice of food, as Sonic had ordered exactly the same thing that they did; instead, it was a little slip of the tongue and a recent development that happened the previous day during the impromptu shopping trip.

"So, why is there an old airplane in the backyard of your house?" Alisa asked the question that came to her mind. It was a leading one, but called for as Nanoha let that slip her tongue in passing discussion.

"And it had Sonic-kun's name written on it in large letters" Suzuka added

"I was wondering the same thing." Nanoha sent a skeptical glance over at the hedgehog, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"I'm not going to get out of this one, am I…" Sonic let out a defeated sigh, "Alright, might as well talk. It's mine; I picked it up yesterday from the docks and took it to Nanoha-chan's house. I had to get some help from her family to get it in the backyard because the thing was so old it couldn't start up."

"Eh!?" the trio, luckily were not eating anything otherwise that would've been a mess, cried out briefly in complete surprise, "It's yours?!"

"Don't look too surprised" the hedgehog sighed again, "The plane is an old vintage-style biplane that I found on South Island; crashed and abandoned. I've been doing my best to try and restore the old thing on my own. So far though, I was only able to repair the wings, refresh the paint job and fix the propeller. The engine's shot dead, so I can't really do anything else unless I get that fixed up."

"So, the books on aviation?" Nanoha curiously asked, implying a need for clarification.

"I wanted to see what the engines on the older model of planes are made of and see if I could build it myself" Sonic explained further, "But, when Eggman attacked, I had to put the plane project on hold."

"How'd you get it back here?" Yuuno asked, figuring if no one else would, he'd try that one.

"Well…" the blue hedgehog went on to explain how he himself got to Uminari City; through the tour service. Yesterday, as it turned out, he went back to tell the captain that he was planning on staying at the city for a while longer as he had made a few new friends and wanted to help them out on something. The captain of the tour liner surprised him with the biplane, explaining that the authorities had found it in their investigation and planned to decommission it for parts, but she "sweet-talked" them into giving it to her for an antique collection, "It was kinda obvious what got her attention about the plane… I did print my name on it."

"What are you going to do about it now?" Suzuka asked

"Probably keep trying to restore it, and might as well add a second seat to it" the hedgehog shrugged, "I figure now that it may be of some help to us in case we end up having to go outside of Uminari City in finding the Jewel Seeds"

"If you want, we could help" Alisa offered, "Suzuka-chan and I come from wealthy families and I don't think something like what you're looking for is going to be affordable under the café's budget."

"You don't have to…" Sonic tried to dissuade them, but found any further attempt in doing so blocked by Nanoha's hand in a gesture of silence.

"Sonic-kun, we're friends now" the girl, despite not having the most confidence in herself to say that, still did so, "And friends help each other out when they're needed. I'm sure my family would like to help you too, but not with most of our budget going into the café and dojo."

If Yuuno had any ideas, which he probably did considering a connection or two he had with his job as an archeologist, he didn't voice them as he preferred to keep that connection quiet until it became important. Not that he had the chance to do so anyways, as the café began to empty itself of the boys from the soccer team. Shiro had excused them for the rest of the afternoon. One black-haired boy in particular caught Nanoha's attention, though not in any typical crush fashion. It was a blue diamond-cut jewel that the boy had taken from his bag and put in his pocket that shocked her with the familiarity, could it have been a Jewel Seed? Nanoha had thought of the notion, but couldn't find a way to ask the boy as he had met up with a girl with long sandy brown hair in a blue tracksuit who looked like she could've been a girlfriend due to how fond she was of him. Before Nanoha could do anything, her father came up to her and the hedgehog.

"Thank you all for coming to the game today" Shiro thanked the group of youth, "Are you guys calling it a day? Need a ride home?"

"No thanks" both Alisa and Suzuka shook their head in polite decline, as they both had rides that were due to pick them both up in a little bit.

"What about you, Nanoha-chan? Sonic-san?" her father asked, "Do you have any plans for today?"

"I'd like to go home and rest for today" Nanoha noted

"Same here" Sonic nodded in agreement, "Tutorial Ferret gave us the day off today from training."

"I was going to go home, take a quick shower and go back to work" Shiro said his plan, "I'll walk you two home."

Meanwhile, with the boy and girl from a few minutes ago; they both walked down the sidewalk, appearing none the wise to anything that was going on, not that anything interesting was going on during their trek. As the two were only focused on their way home, a familiar blue glow and shimmer emitted from the boy's pocket.

* * *

**[Takamachi Residence}  
[No BGM]**

Nanoha must have been more tired than she looked because when she got to her room, Sonic and Yuuno were blessed with the rather humorous sight of the girl unceremoniously plopping onto her bed in exhaustion and fatigue that may have been just a bit exaggerated.

"Nanoha.." Yuuno scolded her, "If you're going to do that, shouldn't you at least change into your pajamas first?"

The girl, displaying that her fatigue and half-awake status was no act, sat up and slowly removed her top. The ferret, freaking out in record time, quickly made a complete 180 turn so he wouldn't be seeing the girl accidentally. Oddly enough, while Yuuno was shivering in comical fear and discomfort, Sonic just shrugged and watched with barely any interest; unsure of what the big deal was or why the ferret would freak out.

"You should take a nap too, Yuuno-kun" Nanoha droned out, again half-awake as she changed, "You too, Sonic-kun.."

"Uh, sure" the hedgehog shrugged and watched as his mistress changed into her orange pajama outfit; he glanced at the ferret, again confused as to why he still had his back turned

"I'm going to sleep until dinner.." Nanoha droned out and fell face first into her pillow, her hair still tied into the pigtails she had sported since she woke up, "Oyasumi…"

With a small sigh, Sonic watched the girl completely fall asleep on the spot. For some reason that he would most definitely question himself mentally about later, he softly untied the girl's hair ties and let her medium-length hair fall down to just below her shoulder level. Yuuno, thinking that it was safe for him to do so, turned around and approached the girl. He didn't do much else other than sit there and watch her.

"As I thought.." Yuuno said softly, knowing that the blue hedgehog would be the only one to hear him, "She looked exhausted… "

"Do you think that I may have something to do with that?" Sonic asked the ferret, just as softly and he too looked at the girl in concern; he didn't look nearly as tired as she was, but he was thinking of joining her in the nap, if only to rest up "Like the magic bond thing we have is draining her more?"

"It doesn't help her, if that's what you're asking, but that's not the issue. So you shouldn't consider yourself a liability" The ferret shook his head with a sigh, "It's the magic itself; using magic that you're not used to really takes its toll. I'm surprised that you're not as exhausted for that same reason."

"I'm not going to deny that I'm having my own share of growing pains here" Sonic shrugged, "But this isn't my first adventure, only the magic is new."

"If only I could help her out more…" Yuuno stared at his feet in regret, "If only I were stronger."

"Don't worry about it, you're already helping her out enough by just being there and teaching her about this magic" Sonic said calmly and kindly, "I know where you're coming from though. It bothers me that she's feeling this toll and I can't do anything to lessen it."

* * *

**[Downtown Uminari City]  
[No BGM]**

Meanwhile, the boy and the girl from before stood at one end of a crosswalk. The two were side-by-side. There was a little bit of a peaceful silence between the two, and really nothing could have gone wrong. The girl turned to the boy and talked a bit as they were waiting for their turn to cross.

"You were really good today" the girl said softly, "At least I thought so.."

"Nah, I think I just got really lucky" the boy said modestly, "It helps to have a good defense backing me up"

"Still…" The girl continued on in her fondness, "I really thought you were cool"

"Aw…" the boy blushed a bit in modesty, or perhaps maybe in a bit of a crush. An idea dawned upon him to reach into his pocket. He pulled out the familiar diamond-cut jewel seed and held it out to her, "Here.. This is for you, I thought it was just an old stone, but it looked beautiful and I think you should have it.

"Wow! It's beautiful" the girl said in awe and admiration when she saw the gem glimmer a bit. She reached out to softly touch it. However, the second she did so, trouble stirred up.

The gem reacted violently and shone brightly, causing the two to scream in surprise as they were both engulfed in the bright light. Vegetation and roots started to sprout of from the ground, especially around the point where the couple stood. With nothing else they could do but squeal, they held on tight as the roots and vegetation took the form of large trees, one of them taking the boy and girl with it.

* * *

**[Takamachi Residence]  
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X]**

The activation of the latest Jewel Seed was the first thing that brought Nanoha wide awake from her nap as her senses went into overdrive. She quickly hopped up from her bed, changed her clothes back to the ones she was wearing at the soccer match and restyled her hair to their usual style.

"So much for the nap" Sonic grumbled and nodded to the girl as they quickly made a sprint down the stairs, alerting Nanoha's father, who was in the bath, in the process.

"Eh?" Shiro blinked and shouted out, "What's up, Nanoha-chan? What's up, did you want to come in with me?"

"Sorry, otou-san! Some other time!" the girl cried out hastily in response, "Something big just came up and I gotta go. I'll be back in a bit!"

"Alright.. Be safe" the father let out a rather defeated sigh, the context of his last question was a non-perverted one, just a father looking to bond with his daughter like they used to when she was much younger. His sigh was probably a sign that he was starting to feel is age and realize how much his youngest daughter had started to grow, "She's growing up so fast…"

* * *

**[Nearby Rooftop]  
[BGM: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X (continuing)]**

Quickly, Nanoha made her way to the top of the roof of a skyscraper close to her house and café. She was followed closely by Sonic and Yuuno, the former easily able to keep stride while the latter was on the beginning mage's shoulder.

"Raising Heart" the girl called out to the device as she threw the red jewel up into the air, "Onegai!"

"_**Standby, ready!"**_ The device declared and let out a burst of magic in which engulfed the girl and hedgehog together in the shared light. Instantly, their respective Barrier Jackets appeared and Raising Heart appeared in the girl's hand in the form of its Device Mode staff. Sonic's twin swords appeared in his grasp as well. Once all of that was over, the two looked at the scene before them in, well Nanoha's case, complete shock and horror.

Uminari City, at least over half of it, was a complete mess. Trees were seen everywhere, covering more than half of the buildings visible. The trees looked just about as large as some of the skyscrapers, maybe even bigger. If it could bring her some relief, the buildings that did not have the trees or roots coming out of them seemed intact for the most part.

"Uh… Yeah" Sonic shook his head a bit and softly quipped, "We're gonna need a bigger hatchet"

"This… this is horrible" Nanoha just stared at the scene in horror, most in part because she felt responsible for what happened.

"This must've been caused by a human" Yuuno explained, "If someone puts their strongest feelings and wishes into it, that's when the Jewel Seed is at its peak of power.

**[BGM Insert: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV ost]**

"…" Nanoha let out a loud gasp in further realization and horror. Regret obvious in her expression, she stared at her feet, _'So that boy really did have a Jewel Seed… I saw it right there in front of me, and I didn't do anything about it. If I did something back then, I could've prevented this from happening!'_

"Nanoha?" Yuuno stared at the girl, he had no idea what she was thinking. To his surprise though, the girl's familiar somehow did know what she was thinking and he could read her horror-stricken expression.

"Enough of this.." Sonic shook his head and placed a firm gloved grip on her shoulder, "We are not going through a drama scene here; not on my watch."

"Eh? Sonic-kun" Nanoha just stared at the hedgehog in confusion, only to comically wince when the hedgehog lightly tugged on the closest pigtail or her hair "Uwaaaah!"

"We have more important things to worry about than to have you start doubting yourself" Sonic lightly glared at her, "Let's get this seed taken care of and we'll talk later."

"…" the girl just stared ahead again, silently absorbing her familiar's words. Her face suddenly gained a serious expression. As if reading her thoughts, Raising Heart's head glowed a bright aura of cherry blossom hue. The girl finally said something after a moment of pause, "Yuuno-kun? What should I do in cases like this?"

"Eh?" the ferret glanced at Nanoha's face, only to flinch a bit at the dead serious look on her face, "Oh.. In order to seal it, you need to get close to the seed."

"Except we can't see it.." Sonic grumbled, "Forget a hatchet, we'll need a big telescope or something!"

"It'll be fine if we find the place it sprouted from" Nanoha, serious and dead set on fixing her mistake held up her staff and pointed it right at the large tree in the middle, "Ne, Raising Heart?"

"_**Area Search"**_ The device confirmed in declaration as her master spun around in a circle, creating a large magic circle with herself in the middle of it.

"Sonic-kun, help me out here, please" the girl requested as she began her incantation, "Lyrical Magical! Search! Find the place where the growth is at its worst"

The search spell went off with a massive amount of spheres in the cherry blossom hue separate and spread out all over Uminari City. Sonic and Nanoha, linked to the spell, closed their eyes and were immediately assaulted with images of what the spheres had picked up through their vision. There was little doubt that the girl and hedgehog would most likely have a headache after it was all over. It only took less than a minute, but they found the source in the form of the boy and girl from before, cuddled close together in a defensive huddle. They were in the middle of a yellowish sphere. The Jewel Seed was right in the middle of the two.

"Found it!" the duo declared at the same

"Eh?" Yuuno blinked, "You did?! That was quick.."

**[BGM: "Paradigm Shift" Final Fantasy XIII-2 OST]**

"I'll seal it right away" Nanoha declared and held Raising Heart out.

"Eh? From this range?!" the ferret argued, "But you can't.."

"Yes we can.." the girl held her device up high, "Ne, Raising Heart?"

"_**Cannon Mode"**_ The device declared in confirmation and shifted into that mentioned mode. At the tip of the staff a large orb of mana started to form, gathering mana; the device looked ready to cast a spell high power, but there was one thing that was missing. Raising Heart, with its intelligence was quick to point out a need, _**"Familiar assistance required!"**_

"Guess that's my cue" Sonic shook his head, sheathed his swords behind his back and held out his arms with the gloved hands open slightly. As he did so, the orb in the middle gathered more power, though it didn't show in the size, it showed in the concentrated amount of mana poured in.

"Go and capture the seed!" Nanoha called out, "Divine Buster!"

With Sonic's help, the Divine Buster was unleashed. The spell took the form of a large, long energy beam and, with incredible pinpoint accuracy; it pierced the middle of the large tree, right where the two civilians with the seed between them centered in the middle. The beam engulfed them, but caused no harm at all. The Jewel Seed's serial number was shown in the Roman numeral "X".

"Lyrical Magical!" Nanoha declared her incantation, "Serial Ten! Seal!"

"_**Sealing!"**_ Raising Heart declared and, even from its wide range, shot off the sealing spell and engulfed the large tree in an explosion of pink mana. The central tree's explosion and destruction caused a chain of events that led to every other root and tree getting caught in the blast and destroyed along with the large tree.

The sun started to set and Uminari City quieted down a bit, though once again, the damage that the Jewel Seed had caused did not just disappear as cracks were all over the place, cracked concrete and steps littered the central point of where the large tree used to be. The boy and girl from before were both unconscious and the Jewel Seed, deactivated, flew from the boy's hand and up into view of Nanoha, where it then was captured and sealed inside Raising Heart.

* * *

**[Jewel Seed Sealed]  
[Jingle: "Zone Clear" Sonic CD (US) OST]**

"_**Receipt No X. Sealed!"**_ The device declared after the Seed was sealed. Once again steam was ejected from the vents along the side of the device's head. _**"Mode release"**_

Upon that declaration, the device returned to its standby form and, at the same time, dismissed the Barrier Jackets of Sonic and Nanoha, returning them to their civilian clothes. Yuuno just stared at the girl in awe, definitely unable to believe what he just saw.

'_Incredible! To be able to use long range magic that even I can't use'_ The ferret thought as he stared at the two,_ 'Even though she had help from Sonic, how much magical talent does she have?'_

**[BGM: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV OST]**

In a sudden and deliberate movement that surprised both hedgehog and ferret alike, Nanoha crouched down and hugged her knees tightly. Both of them didn't miss the tears that threatened to fall from her face. The girl just sat there and let her regrets and feelings be known to the two about her mistake.

"I've caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people today…" the girl said softly, "That boy we saw, I noticed that he had one of the seeds, but I thought it was just my imagination, seeing something that wasn't there… I could've stopped it! I could've done something, but I didn't and all of this happened."

"Nanoha… You couldn't have known that this would've happened." Yuuno tried to console her, and though he got no dice, he kept trying at it, "You shouldn't look so sad. If anything, it's my fault that all of this happened in the first place."

The girl said nothing and just sat there, hugging her knees and letting her sad feelings show in her face. For her, it was a truly humbling experience; knowing that it was her mistake that caused so much trouble for everyone. It would've been completely natural and understandable for her to let the gravity of her mistake impact her hard.

Sonic, again with a sudden drive to do so; suddenly picked the girl up onto her feet and hugged her close and tight. He himself said nothing, but he had no need to do so and his feelings were easily shared in the intent alone. The familiar magic bond between the two, as one of the upsides to it, assisted the hedgehog in sharing his feelings with the contact. All Nanoha could do was return the hug with one of her own, her hand softly patting the hedgehog's back, thankfully the spines were not sharp at the time.

A little bit later, the three were on their way home when they passed by one of the recent after effects from the tree incident. On one of the sidewalks, there was a large chunk on concrete that was off the ground, no doubt leftover when the roots of one of the huge trees were there.

As they stared at the huge chunk, the three took notice of the boy and girl from before directly across from where they were positioned. The boy looked like he had an obvious limp in his step and relied on the help of his female friend to walk, but otherwise he looked fine. In fact he was joking with her a bit.

'_It's a tough feeling to know when you're the cause of someone else's suffering. This is why I want to work even harder than before now'_ Nanoha frowned at the ground in deep thought, once again she was comforted by her familiar, _'Not just for Yuuno-kun or Sonic-kun's sake. But to make sure that this doesn't happen again.'_

It would be this day that would live on in Nanoha's memory; marking the first time in her young start as a mage that she made a mistake, a mistake that led to disastrous results. If there was one thing to be thankful for, however, it was that things could have turned out much worse than they did.

**[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]**

* * *

**[End of Chapter 5]**

Author's note: Ah yes, this was a sobering moment indeed for Nanoha Takamachi. Writing out Sonic's reaction wasn't as tough as it may have seemed. Watching that episode and that scene, Nanoha looked like she really needed a hug there. Yes, Sonic is in clothes. Kinda going with the color scheme inspired by his "favorite" clothes in the Sonic OVA; because.. Well.. REAL GUYS WEAR PINK! DANGUMMIT!


	6. Chapter 6

SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in another chapter to Sonic the Hedgehog Lyrical Familiar. Somehow… spent the past weekend into the week hit hard by my bronchial asthma.. not a good year for allergies that's for sure. I'll get through this, I usually do.. here we go!

* * *

**[Uminari City, Japan]  
[Time: Unknown specifically, late-night speculated]  
[No BGM]**

The city at night was peaceful and quiet; the calm breeze pushed the clouds across the late-night sky. Pedestrians were rarely seen out and about on the rooftops, as they were usually found in the streets or in their cars. The quiet environment and the fact that the typical Japanese citizen would not be likely to be pattering about on the rooftops made a few of the rooftops and skyscrapers of the city as secure locations.

Taking in the luxurious view of the cityscape and the beautiful ocean alongside the coast from a high skyscraper was what looked like a 9 year old girl. Long golden-yellowish blonde hair tied into really long-twin tails, tied by black hair-ties. The girl's eyes were a blood-crimson red, but her face appeared more innocent and lonely rather than malevolent and dangerous.

The girl wore what looked like a sleeveless outfit that had a black swim-suit with an attached pink mini-skirt at her waist, opened slightly in the middle but also held by a large thick brown belt. On her feet were black pointed-toe boots with a slight rise on the back heel and long black socks that end just at her mid-thigh, making a small gap of skin visible between the socks and the miniskirt. On her hands were black full-finger gloves with yellow triangle gems on her knuckles. Maroon belt-like cords were visible on her torso part of the suit and a black cloak with a red underside topped off her outfit.

In the girl's right hand was a black pole-ax with a yellow circle where the "edge/blade" of the ax came from. There was a long, silver pole that extended out from the head of the ax that allowed for easy grip by the girl.

"This is where the Lost Logia is?" The girl asked, calmly looking over the city, "the "Jewel Seeds" as these ones are called."

The girl looked over her shoulder to a wall nearby where her apparent companion sat. The companion was a large reddish-orange furred wolf with a red jewel in the forehead being one distinguishing feature aside from her large size and imposing figure.

"Yes" The wolf answered softly, she had a tone of affirmation though if anyone would've listened hard enough, there would've been a slight hint of a sigh almost in her answer, "This is where we tracked the Jewel Seeds"

"Any possible issues we may have to deal with?" The girl asked, having detected that defeated-like sigh from her companion but put it aside to deal with later on.

"None apparently from the locals, they're all non-magic civilians from what I can sense" the wolf answered, "But, be careful, Fate. You're not the only mage here. I felt 2 mages and a familiar, and they have collected Jewel Seeds together."

"It doesn't matter" the girl shook her head, "It's only a matter of time before all of them are ours."

The wolf said nothing else. She merely shook her head, took a long look up at the moon before doing what most of the canine sort does on long nights. She let out a long howl to the moon and the night sky.

* * *

**[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]**

**Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar  
Chapter 6  
New Rivals for Nanoha and Sonic?!**

* * *

**[Takamachi Residence]  
[Time: 0945]  
[No BGM]**

As usual for Sonic and Miyuki, the two looked a bit winded but felt good as they had completed another training session in the twin sword style. Sonic and the only other female sibling of the Takamachi family had finished taking their showers and found their resident ferret in the living room watching the television. Where Nanoha and Kyouya were would've been anyone's guess; but they, along with Sonic and Yuuno, had something planned and were due to leave soon.

"Catching up on your news, Yuuno-kun?" Miyuki asked the ferret

"Yeah, I wanted to gauge how bad our collateral damage was. A few of our Jewel Seeds didn't give me the chance of setting up a barrier beforehand, so there would be a fair amount of collateral damage." Yuuno noted, "And there were a few things I still don't know about before I came here as well."

"Specifically, South Island" Sonic was quick to point out, and before Yuuno could say anything in defense or rebuttal, the blue hedgehog continued, "He hasn't missed a single report on it."

"Last I heard the police still haven't come up with a clue as to what happened over there" Miyuki noted and sent Sonic a curious glance; though if she was going to ask him about it, she didn't get the chance to as Kyouya entered the room, looking like he was waiting for Nanoha to come in right behind him.

"Nanoha-chan, are you ready yet?" the older brother asked

"Sorry!" the girl called out in response, "I just need another minute or two"

"Oh? You two going somewhere today?" Miyuki asked

"Yeah, to the Tsukimura house" Kyouya answered, "Apparently Suzuka-chan invited Nanoha-chan over; Yuuno-kun and Sonic-kun are going with us as well."

"I see…" The meganeko suddenly had a look on her face that one could almost consider one of jealousy? "I suppose you're going to see Shinobu-san, ne?"

Yuuno and Sonic, feeling understandably confused, rapidly made multiple double-takes between the two. There was something between the two siblings and they had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Well.." Kyouya looked down a bit, he probably had the feeling she would bring up Shinobu, "I figured I could at least escort them over."

**[BGM insert: "Tanoshii Kyuujitsu" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

Thankfully, the older brother was saved by Nanoha, who only just walked in the room with her pigtails almost bouncing like they were animated.

"Thank you for waiting" the girl grinned cheerfully, dressed in her usual sweater and orange skirt outfit and donning a small backpack, "Yuuno-kun! Sonic-kun! Let's go!"

"Have a nice time you guys" Miyuki said as she watched them leave the house with a small wave.

* * *

**[Uminari City]**

With Kyouya escorting them along the way; Nanoha, Sonic and Yuuno boarded the bus that was set for the district in which the Tsukimura residence was located at. The bus route took them past a breathtaking view of the bright blue ocean alongside the coast. Nanoha took a moment to go into the mind-speak with Sonic and Yuuno about the purpose of their little trip.

"_Today we made plans to have a tea party at Suzuka-chan's house"_ the girl explained to them, _"We'll be there all day."_

"_I figured as much" _the hedgehog shrugged, then discretely gestured in Kyouya's direction, _"There a reason we're bringing him along?"_

"_He's going to see Shinobu-san, Suzuka-chan's older sister"_ Nanoha nodded then paused when she felt the questioning glance from her brother, "Eh? Um…Oh it's nothing."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence as they continued onward. Nanoha and Kyouya both looked excited in their own way while Sonic and Yuuno felt like the odd ones out, but they shrugged and figured that feeling would go away as they got used to the family and their friends.

* * *

**[Tsukimura Residence]  
[No BGM]**

Nanoha had previously mentioned to Sonic and Yuuno that between the trio that she, Suzuka and Alisa made; she was the only girl who didn't hail from a multi-millionaire family. That fact made her somewhat self-conscious and sometimes felt like a third wheel to them, but it also easily explained the presence of the towering 3 story mansion that they found themselves at. Yuuno was surprised by the size and, albeit a milder sense, Sonic was as well.

Politely to announce their greeting and presence without making it too much of an inconvenience, Nanoha rang the front door. It didn't take long for it to be answered by the head maid of the Tsukimura household, Noel.

"Kyouya-sama, Nanoha-ojou-sama, Sonic-san" the older maid addressed them all aside from the ferret, who she gave a slight nod to, "Welcome"

"Thanks for the invitation" Nanoha's older brother thanked the young woman

"Konnichiwa" Nanoha beamed brightly with Sonic on her right nodding politely and Yuuno, who was on her shoulder, sitting there under his cover of the innocent ferret.

The head maid guided the three plus ferret in the house and through a hall or two before arriving at the room where the Alisa, Suzuka and Shinobu, Suzuka's sister were seated at a small table. All three were in casual clothes: the casual dresses for Suzuka and Alisa and a white t-shirt and light-blue short shorts for Shinobu. The three of them were calmly and elegantly sipping tea poured by Farin, the younger of the maid, when Nanoha with Yuuno on her shoulder, Kyouya and Sonic entered led by the older maid.

"Nanoha-chan!" Suzuka stood up upon the sight of her best friend

"Suzuka-chan!" Nanoha returned the small greeting with a smile

"Nanoha-chan, Welcome!" Farin greeted the guest politely though with a little bit of a non-formal honorific.

"Kyouya!" in almost record time, though without losing any of her feminine elegance and flair, Shinobu vacated her seat and approached her longtime friend and probable love-interest, "Hi!"

"Yeah.." Kyouya just stared at her face and she stared back; both rather taken in by their gazes to focus on much else at the moment.

**[BGM Insert: "Honobono" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

Noel and Farin left the room to make tea up for the expected guests. Shinobu and Kyouya also left the room to head upstairs to Shinobu's room and have their tea there. Nanoha and Sonic took to the seats on opposite ends of the table. Nanoha had to move one of the many house cats off the cushion to do so, but other than giving Sonic a rather humorous show of Yuuno getting a little unnerved by the way that cat stared at him, there was little issue.

"Thanks for inviting us, Suzuka-chan" Nanoha thanked the girl

"It's no problem. You both looked down lately and Alisa-chan and I got a little bit worried." The girl smiled cheerfully, helping Nanoha get the feeling that she was with friends who supported her, "Did something happen recently? Like with your magic?"

"Yeah…" Nanoha did look down and quickly explained what happened after they left the café with the latest Jewel Seed sealing, "Since then, I've been trying a lot harder"

**[BGM: "Hashire" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

"KYUN!" all conversation was silenced by Yuuno's ferret-like cry. The trio of girls plus hedgehog took a curious glance down to see what the ruckus was about. They were all greeted with the rather humorous, at least to the blue hedgehog, sight of the poor ferret getting chased by that same cat.

"Yuuno-kun!" Nanoha stood up and watched the chase in some concern of the ferret

"Ai! Stop that!" Suzuka tried to get her cat to stop chasing the ferret

The only two who didn't move from their spots on the table were Sonic and Alisa. The dirty-blonde haired girl just sat there as she didn't have much business in trying to stop the chase; she was more of a dog person anyway. As for Sonic, the hedgehog familiar was in an internal battle with himself to keep from bursting out into laughs over the Tutorial Ferret's misfortune. Although, if things weren't interesting enough already, they were just about to get more so as Farin, the not-so-graceful of maids, had just entered holding a tray.

"Here I am! Sorry to keep you waiting!" The girl cheerfully announced, "I've brought all of you some strawberry milk tea and cream cheese cookies."

There are several things that do not mix well there. For one, the cat and ferret chase led through the maid's legs; for two, the maid herself was, as previously stated, quite the dojikko. A cute and kind girl, but has a penchant for the clumsiness. The poor maid had to spin around so much to avoid the cat and ferret and very quickly she felt a rush of dizziness from the quick spin.

"Watch out!" Nanoha and Suzuka quickly rushed to help her out. The two girls caught on to the maid just as she was about to fall; saving not only Farin from a mess, but also saving the cookies and milk tea from getting messed up and ruined in the fall.

"Safe.." Nanoha sighed in relief and, with Suzuka's help, helped Farin keep her balance.

* * *

**[Outside]  
[No BGM]**

After listening to a rapid-burst of apologies from Farin, who was easily forgiven for her cute clumsy moment; the girls and hedgehog moved their tea party outback so they can all watch the numerous amount of cats that Suzuka was taking care of.

"Your house is like a cat heaven" Alisa complimented her heiress friend as she watched the cats walk around peacefully.

"That's okay" Nanoha cheerfully said, "Cats are cute. Don't you think so too, Sonic-kun?"

"Eh.. They're okay" the hedgehog shrugged.

"Thanks, though a few of them have been promised homes already, so I won't be seeing some for a while" Suzuka regretfully admitted, "But I'm sure they'll grow up to be healthy and big"

As the tea party continued in peace, Ai, the same cat that had chased Yuuno earlier, wandered around and into the forest outlying the backyard of the large mansion. As the curious cat walked through the trees, it caught sight of a blue gem that was cut like a diamond. As the cat approached it, the Jewel Seed flickered to life.

**[BGM insert: "Inflexible Determination" Final Fantasy X OST]**

That sudden flickering drew the attention of Sonic, Nanoha and Yuuno instantly and the three started to look around as if taking note of what they suddenly sensed. Alisa and Suzuka were not so oblivious and drawn in to their drinks, so they were quickly able to tell that something was up.

"Nanoha-chan?" Suzuka asked curiously, "Is something wrong?"

"Um…" Nanoha looked at Yuuno and the hedgehog, upon their nods she turned to face her friends, "We just sensed a Jewel Seed."

One more flicker elsewhere drew more attention from the magically sensitive trio. From all signs, it appears that another Jewel Seed has just been activated.

"And it just turned on.." Sonic added, "Looks like we'll have to pause the tea party."

"Can we come with you?" Alisa asked; well at least she actually asked this time around, still she and Suzuka both did not appear like they would take no for an answer, "We may not be able to help much, but in case something goes wrong we'd be able to make sure you get medical attention"

"We won't be able to stop you anyways" Yuuno sighed as he hopped off Nanoha's lap and into the direction where he picked up the Jewel Seed activation, "But please stay out of the way."

The trio of girls plus ferret and hedgehog went into the forest, anxious as to what troubles the Jewel Seed could cause this time. Because of the chance of outsiders; Yuuno had dropped the idea of possibly setting up a barrier to prevent that, but was rejected by Sonic and Nanoha. While the both of them would appreciate less interference, they both felt that setting up the barrier would put unnecessary strain to the ferret, and they were in the backyard of Suzuka's house, so the only attention they could have drawn might have been from the maids and Shinobu. Kyouya knew of their activities anyways and Nanoha trusted him to do the right thing.

A blue flash of light drew the gaze of the girls, Sonic and Yuuno. What they saw next when the flash dissipated gave a completely diverse reaction from them all. Ai, the very same cat that had a chase with Yuuno earlier, was there, only there was one thing rather different about her. She was a good 10+ times her original size. Needless to say, the three girls just stared at the cat in shock and had a few anime-style sweat drops falling from their faces in exasperation. Sonic was no different in that regard either, but Yuuno, poor ferret could only stare. He probably just saw the thing that scared him the most as a ferret.

**[BGM: "Eeto Desu Ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

Ai, for all it just grew in size, acted like really any other cat would. It just let out a soft "meow" that was much louder with its increased size and merely just walked on peacefully, minding its own business. If anything, the only real trouble was the fact that each step the giant cat took made a shockwave with the impact on the ground.

"Uh…" Sonic was almost legitimately speechless, "You'll have to come back to me for a quip there."

"T-that's…." Alisa just stared in shock equally

"Ai.." Suzuka, for legitimate reasons, was a little bit concerned for the safety of her cat.

"That kitten had feelings of wishing to become big" Yuuno tried, albeit weakly, to explain, "And that wish was literally granted?"

"I see.." Nanoha pressed her hand to her forehead in exasperation.

"But, at any rate. It's still dangerous" Yuuno noted, "If we don't return it to its normal size soon.."

"Y-yeah." The girl nodded

"Ai wouldn't be able to fit in our house" Suzuka gave her best friend and resident newbie mage a pleading look, "please help Ai"

"Well at least it doesn't look like she'll come after us anytime soon" Sonic noted the one positive to all of this, "Unless she fancies another game of "tag" with the Tutorial Ferret"

"That didn't turn out well the first time" Nanoha shook her head and held out her device, "Raising Heart.."

Before Nanoha could give her device the order to set up, a yellow bolt of magic flew over everyone's head and hit the cat. The large cat flinched as it was hit by the bolt, but otherwise didn't appear hurt all that much, it might've been more-or-less surprised by the sudden attack.

Everyone turned to face the source of the bolt and found that it was the ax-wielding girl that was up on the rooftops the previous night; although no one there would've been able to take note of that as they hadn't seen her before. Today the girl had perked herself on a nearby telephone wire pole and had a perfect vantage point to shoot from.

"Bardiche" the girl softly spoke in command to the pole-ax in her right hand, "Photon Lancer"

"_**Yes, sir"**_ the device, apparently named Bardiche, spoke in a deep male mechanical voice, _**"Photon Lancer, full-auto fire"**_

A yellow light gathered at the tip of Bardiche's head as the girl fired rapid-fire bolts of magical light. The bolts themselves appeared to have a lightning element to them as they were fired in multiple rounds at once. All of them hit the cat and caused it to cry out again. The last set of rounds may not have hurt it as much, but these ones did.

"Ai!" Suzuka had to be held back by Alisa otherwise she might've pulled a not-so-wise move of trying to go help out her cat.

"That's magic!" Yuuno stared in shock.

"Sonic-kun.." Nanoha glanced at Sonic and they both shared a nod. In a matter of seconds the girl held out her standby form device again, "Raising Heart! Onegai!"

"_**Standby ready"**_ Raising Heart chimed in confirmation and engulfed the girl and her familiar in a light that quickly generated their respective Barrier Jackets and Sonic's twin kodachi before going to its own active form.

**[No BGM]**

Quickly, the two approached the cat, hoping they could get to it and protect it before the girl decided to let another round of her spell fire off.

"_**Flier Fin"**_ Raising Heart declared as small pink wings materialized at her master's feet. The wings allowed Nanoha to fly up onto the back of the cat with ease and haste. Sonic, quickly able to copy the spell, did so and joined his mage on Ai's back. Quickly Sonic took a defensive stance while Nanoha held Raising Heart in front of her. The device chimed out in declaration of another spell, _**"Wide Area Protection!"**_

Sure enough, another round of Photon Lancers was rapid-fired. Instead of hitting the cat, though, they were all met by a wide pink shield that covered the back of the cat. The combined magic power of Sonic and Nanoha fueling the barrier protected the giant cat from any further harm.

"A mage and familiar…" the girl softly observed, but didn't let the interference affect her emotions. Instead, she tilted the head of her own device downward and fired off another set of rounds, this time they were aimed at the cat's legs and hit their mark easily.

With the cat's legs struck, she lost her balance and fell down onto her side with her back hitting the tree next to her. Thankfully, Sonic and Nanoha were able to easily glide down to the ground and take a defensive stance in front of the large cat with Yuuno hiding in the bushes close by so he could watch. Alisa and Suzuka also took refuge behind the bushes with the ferret, despite the latter purple-haired girl's wishes to make sure Ai was okay.

'_Every day I'm surprised more by what these two can do.' _Yuuno thought to himself in observation as he watched the girl and hedgehog's actions, _'There may not be much else that I can teach them'_

**[BGM Insert: "Ketsudan no toki" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

The girl who fired the shots glided slowly and landed on the branch of the closest tree in front of Nanoha and Sonic. It was then that the two could have a much better look at the mystery girl herself. Both of them were in for quite a shock when they discovered that this girl looked no older than they were. She levelled them both with a calculating glance and glare, but had a more-or-less neutral frown on her face.

"Another mage like myself.." the girl softly, but clearly and easily understood, thought out loud, "Another person searching for the Lost Logia, or Jewel Seeds as these ones are called."

"There's no doubt about it now" Yuuno thought out loud, easily heard by Sonic, Nanoha as well as Suzuka and Alisa, "This girl is probably from my world. Not only that, but she knows the true identity of the Jewel Seeds."

"Another Intelligent Device, like Bardiche." The girl's crimson eyes glanced at Raising Heart. Then her glance was levelled once again at Sonic, locking eye contact with his green eyes, "And another Familiar as well… Like Arf.."

"Bardiche?" Nanoha stared at the girl's mentioned device, quickly comparing it to that of her own Raising Heart.

"Arf?" Sonic blinked in confusion. He looked all around him and where the girl was, but couldn't find who the girl was referring to there.

"I came by myself." The blonde explained, "As for the Lost Logia, or Jewel Seeds.."

"_**Scythe Form"**_ Bardiche declared and instantly opened up the ax-head and ran a blade of energy through it, transforming the device into a scythe that looked pretty dangerous with the mana-generated blade.

"I'm terribly sorry for this, but I will be the one to claim it" Fate backing up the apologetic tone with her soft voice easily, took a stance and in a sudden display of tremendous speed, she rushed forward to take a swipe at Nanoha and Sonic.

"_**Evasion!"**_ Raising Heart quickly declared, following up with a spell declaration as well, _**"Flier Fin!"**_

It was only thanks to that Flier Fin spell that Sonic and Nanoha were able to avoid the swipe of Fate's scythe slash. Nanoha's momentum took her to the skies while Sonic's took him toward the trees bordering the forest path. Again, unfazed by the evasion of her foes, Fate brought the still open scythe device of hers behind her and bent her left front knee but fully extended her rear right in a stance.

"_**Arc Saber"**_ Bardiche confirmed its master's silent spell command and readied itself for Fate to take a big swipe and detach the blade of the scythe. The blade was sent spinning at Nanoha much like a boomerang would've been thrown.

"_**Protection" **_Through Raising Heart's declaration, Nanoha took to the defensive again and made the blade hit her barrier in a small explosion. Nanoha had no intention of trapping herself with the barrier and she used the explosion to ascend higher up in the sky. Unfortunately for her, Fate had an advantage in speed and used that to rapidly take to the skies and clash.

"Why?" Nanoha asked as she struggled in the clash of Raising Heart and Bardiche, "Why are you doing this?"

"Even if I told you" Fate softly spoke, "It would probably mean nothing to you.."

"Oy!" Sonic's voice alerted Nanoha and Fate to the presence of the hedgehog, who had also taken to the skies. Twin kodachi blades wielded, the blue hedgehog used his own amazing speed and hoped to catch the blonde off her guard while she was busy with his own mage, "I think you forgot someone!"

Nanoha gritted her teeth, but not for Sonic's sudden appearance and she broke off her clash with Fate to give him the chance of taking an attack on the girl. Sonic had the advantage of his own speed with him and just as his surprise attack could've been a sure success, he found it blocked by Bardiche. Fate, not about to take another chance with the familiar, used the clash to break off downward back into the forest. Sonic let out a soft grunt before he went down to join with Nanoha again.

Fate, again bearing little change in her expression, touched down on a branch of another tree above the position of Nanoha and Sonic, who were once again side-by-side. She held up Bardiche as it changed forms back to its original device form.

"_**Cannon Mode"**_ Raising Heart shifted to the declared form as Nanoha held the device out and pointed it right at Fate as if ready to get a spell fired off. Sonic, taking a quick non-verbal hint from the girl and device; sheathed his twin-kodachi and also brought his palms forward to pinch in to the spell preparation, _**"Divine Buster! Standby ready"**_

"_**Photon Lancer, get set!"**_ Bardiche retorted as Fate returned the gesture and pointed the head of Bardiche right at Nanoha.

'_I'm sure she's the same age as us..'_ Nanoha observed about the girl above her and on the opposite end of her crosshairs, _'She has such beautiful eyes and hair.. But… this girl..'_

Before Nanoha could finish her thought, her attention, as was Sonic's, were suddenly shifted off of the girl as the gigantic cat woke up with a loud meow. Unfortunately for the two, their sudden distraction was a big mistake and it was one that Fate was not about to pass up so freely as a bolt of magic suddenly was generated at the tip of Bardiche.

"Oh…" Sonic was the first to realize the mistake and in addition, realize just how much it will cost, "Crap.."

"I'm sorry…" the girl spoke softly and apologetically.

"_**Fire"**_ Bardiche declared and fired off said spell at almost point-blank range. Nanoha and Sonic didn't even have a second before they were engulfed and hit hard by the Photon Lancer. The lancer not only hit the two, it also made contact with the ground beneath them and sent their limp, probably unconscious bodies up into the air and falling down.

"Nanoha!/-chan! Sonic!/-kun!" Yuuno, Alisa and Suzuka called out to the two in the air as they quickly rushed to their aid. Before the unconscious two could suffer any further harm from a bad landing with the ground, Yuuno caught them with a set of magic-generated fields that sprouted up from the ground. Alisa hoisted the unconscious Nanoha over her shoulder while Suzuka did the same with Sonic. The civilians and ferret were then forced to watch a different mage go to work with sealing of a Jewel Seed.

"_**Glaive Form"**_ Bardiche declared and its axe head flipped up by 180 degrees and extended away from the handle. Three wings of mana were released below the base, making the device look more like a glaive. With little emotion to her expression, Fate twirled her device in a show of skill and pointed the tip of the glaive form device at the gigantic cat. Lightning rushed from the tip of the device and impacted the body of the cat, making it cry out in pain.

"Ai.." Suzuka could barely watch, but she did, anxiously hoping that her cat would be alright when the sealing was done.

As the giant cat cried in pain, the Jewel Seed it had come into contact with emerged from its body and reveal itself. In red lettering, the Roman Numerals "XIV" that marked the Seed's serial number were revealed as well.

"_**Command, sir?"**_ Bardiche asked

"Lost Logia… Jewel Seed Serial XIV" Fate calmly declared the Jewel Seed's serial number and made her order clear, "Seal.."

"_**Yes sir" **_Bardiche confirmed as Fate held it upward to face the sky. A yellow stream of mana was sent upward into the sky. The stream opened up a hole in that cloudy blue sky and from that hole came countless bolt-like streams. Falling down like rain as they impacted the Jewel Seed, and its previous host through extension hard.

"_**Sealing"**_ Bardiche declared as a powerful and wide wave of yellow energy fell straight down from the hole and equally made a huge impact on the cat. A huge flash of light blocked all sight for a few moments before it dissipated, leaving behind the Jewel Seed and Ai, who was now back to her normal size. The cat groaned a little bit but otherwise, it only appeared to be unconscious.

Fate calmly walked over to the Jewel Seed and touched the tip or Bardiche, which was back to its device form, to the Jewel Seed. The Seed was quickly captured and stored inside the black device.

"_**Captured" **_Bardiche declared as it released a burst of steam

**[No BGM]**

"Ai!" Suzuka's concerned voice calling out for her cat reminded Fate that she wasn't alone. With little emotion she turned to face the ferret and the two young civilians that had their unconscious friends over their respective shoulders. No doubt they were going to get them both to a hospital, but Suzuka wanted to make sure her cat was safe and sound.

"Civilians.." Fate regarded the two softly

"W-why did you have to hurt Ai so much?!" Suzuka asked, tears falling from her face in grave concern, "S-she was only a small kitten."

"If what you did to seal that seed thing causes any really painful hurt to Ai" Alisa, royally and rightfully ticked off, glared at the other girl, "I swear you'll answer to me for making Suzuka-chan sad. As if you haven't already done enough by hurting Nanoha-chan and Sonic-kun"

"I apologize for my brash actions" Fate, softly, sympathetically apologized with a deep bow, "Your cat will be fine after some rest, it wasn't hurt that badly by my sealing."

Even with Sonic's weight on her shoulder, Suzuka easily managed to breeze past Fate and grab her kitten before going back to Alisa and Yuuno's side. The nine year old purple-haired heiress calmly sighed in relief before.

"You two are only civilians; if you do not wish to be hurt; I suggest you refrain from getting involved in this anymore." Fate warned the two sternly after allowing Suzuka to get her cat, "The same for your friends. If they do not wish for a repeat of today, they should stay out of my way and give up their own Jewel Seeds."

"Why are you doing this?" Alisa asked, "You look like you could be our age"

"Even if I told you both, it probably wouldn't matter." Fate turned her back on the group and slowly started away, "Your friends will be fine after they receive medical attention, but when they wake up; please give them my warning."

With Yuuno watching with a glare on his ferret face to make sure she didn't try anything further, Alisa and Suzuka watched as Fate made her exit in a not-so-dramatic fashion and walk away. Once the girl was no longer in sight, the two heiresses and Tutorial Ferret left the area as well and went on back to the Tsukimura residence.

* * *

**[Tsukimura Residence]  
[Time: 1720 (5:20 pm)]  
[BGM: "Kono hiroi sekai ni" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

By the time Sonic and Nanoha had regained consciousness twilight had already started to descend in the afternoon sky as the sun had also begun to set. The two woke up, bandaged and a little bit sore in a bed in one of the few spare bedrooms. They were surrounded by Kyouya, Alisa, Suzuka, Farin, Noel and Shinobu.

As it turned out, during the time they were unconscious, Sonic and Nanoha were alerted to a few things. First and foremost, the fact that they were carried inside the house by Suzuka and Alisa drew understandable concern from Kyouya, Shinobu and the maids. Yuuno, making another action he would later regret further, had to bring Shinobu and the maids in on the whole magic secret as it was the only way to explain what had happened. At first the three were somewhat skeptical, after all it did come from a talking ferret, but Kyouya, Alisa and Suzuka were able to back up the ferret's story, in addition to the young girls' most recent experience. They believed the story and promised to support in any way they could. The ferret was once again reminded of how much Nanoha's friends and family cared for them, and how easily they were also able to accept Sonic and care for him as well like a friend.

The second thing they were told was that Ai, the cat that was possessed by the Jewel Seed, woke up fine and healthy. That gave some relief, especially to Suzuka, who treasured that cat like all the others she had. Fate's word held true after all. Speaking of Fate, the two were given the mentioned girl's warning, albeit she still remained unnamed to them as the girl had not given any of them her name yet. They calmly listened to the warning and no doubt will take it to heart.

"That girl" Yuuno said from the bedside in deep thought, "her clothes, device, magic.. there's no doubt in my mind that she is someone from my world."

"You think we'll meet her again as we hunt for Jewel Seeds?" Nanoha asked the ferret and hedgehog. Upon seeing them both nod the girl shook her head, "Strangely, that thought doesn't scare me.."

"There is one though that unnerves me though" Sonic said after another moment to think back on what the other girl had said before, "We saw her device, and felt her magic, but she said earlier that she was flying solo today. If that's the case, who or what is her familiar? If she was able to do this much damage to us on her own; that makes me nervous as to what her familiar could do."

The others could only nod solemnly in agreement. They were all concerned about the condition of the two, but were relieved to find that they would be much better after some rest. Still, many questions loomed over everyone's minds. Who was that girl? Why was she after the Jewel Seeds?

* * *

**[Apartment]  
[Later that night]  
[BGM: "Kizuna shinjinte" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]**

Much later at night found Fate, the girl who sealed the Jewel Seed that possessed the cat earlier that afternoon in an apartment she recently took up residence in. As she sat down in her couch against the window, the girl's wolf-familiar, Arf, walked right next to her, calmly growling in satisfaction when the girl stroked her forehead.

"There was a little bit of interference" Fate said as she petted the wolf, "But everything turned out fine."

"Did they really?" Arf asked, understandably concerned after she heard about the interference.

"The Jewel Seed, Serial 14, I captured it" Fate nodded, "I had to deal with the mage. She had a device like Bardiche and a familiar like you said."

"This will be the last time I let you fly solo on me, Fate" Arf said in a tone that gave her mistress no room for argument, "What was her familiar like?"

"He was short but fast and unlike you he doesn't transform and wields swords when he fights." The girl answered, "I wonder though... how many Seeds do they have?"

"We'll have to take them at some point. It's what we have to do after all" Arf took a brief glance behind her at a portrait on a lighted nightstand. A frown formed on her animal-like muzzle.

"We'll be alright so long as we don't stray from our path" Fate calmly petted her wolf again, following her glance to that same frame. It was a picture of what looked like the same girl when she was younger smiling alongside a tall and beautiful woman with dark purple hair, "Wait for us, kaa-san.. We'll return to you soon."

**[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]**

* * *

**[End of Chapter 6]**

Author's Note: Finally! After the long time coming we get the debut of FATE-CHAN! Fate finally makes her debut in Lyrical Familiar. What do ya'll think? I think I portrayed her pretty fair here.


End file.
